Vimeo Finally Offers Subscriptions; Big Brand Content Coming Soon

Vimeo has been rolling out revenue-generation tools for years now, as it tries to move from a beloved arty version of YouTube to an arty version that actually makes money. While it already offers transactional video-on-demand options for its video creators, today it adds subscription video-on-demand tools to the mix. The video sharing site introduced a flexible set of subscription tools where creators can set their own prices and keep 90 percent of the revenue after transaction fees.

Advanced options in the subscription toolset include the ability to sell in the Vimeo On Demand store or on the site's publisher network. Creators can set up geographic windows so their content is only available in select locations, and can view subscriber totals and revenue in a browser-based dashboard. Creators even have the option to create free trials, publish free episodes, or make bonus content available.

Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor broke the news that subscriptions were coming in an October 2014 interview with Re/code. She said that subscriptions would debut the next month, so getting the options right must have taken a little longer than she expected.

This is only the first phase of Vimeo's subscription plans. In the second phase it will expand the subscription library with content from bigger brands in order to better serve niche audiences.

"We'll be pulling in some of those bigger brands and creating channels with them," a press representative said. That second phase will come sometime later this year.

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net