Vimeo is looking to “take a share of the $500 billion TV and film market” by launching its own SVoD offering.
This new service will be available on top of existing options to subscribe to individual content channels on Vimeo – a feature launched following Vimeo’s acquisition of VHX earlier this year.
In a letter to shareholders, interim Vimeo CEO Joey Levin said, “Rather than sell ads on Vimeo, or try to launch a linear channel through existing access providers, we will begin to experiment with proprietary consumer subscription services on Vimeo.”
“Vimeo has the once-in-a-generation opportunity to, following in Netflix’s footsteps, deliver compelling subscription viewing experiences for consumers in the market for pay-TV.”
“I believe we can do so at a fraction of the cost of other major competitors by virtue of the audience and content benefits conferred upon Vimeo through our existing marketplace. And I believe we can do it in a way that empowers the content creators.”
The introduction of this SVoD is designed to bolster revenues while tapping into the site’s existing community and archive of content.
“The main differentiator between us and others at play in this new OTT market is that unlike all others who have to start from scratch, we begin with over a billion monthly video views, 115 million videos available, 240 million monthly viewers,” said Levin.
“Ultimately, our goal is for Vimeo to drive millions of subscriptions and transactions for our creators while also growing a proprietary subscriber base with millions of consumers directly.”
