Vimeo will launch its own standalone subscription service that will bundle premium programming into a paid product, wrote IAC CEO and interim Vimeo CEO Joey Levin in a letter to investors.
“Vimeo has the potential to be one of the biggest and most disruptive opportunities we’ve seen at IAC,” said Levin in the letter, “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. [IAC owns Vimeo and is a media and internet company with more than 150 brands and products]
“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?—?over 100 million of whom are on Vimeo properties, 24 million of whom watch three or more videos on Vimeo per month, and millions of whom have already purchased content on the Vimeo platform from a Vimeo creator. Not bad for approximately $65 million aggregate investment into Vimeo, the vast majority of which built the SaaS business.”
The announcement follows the launch of the download-to-own TV store by Vimeo, offering content from Lionsgate and Starz.