Vimeo enters crowded TV market
LOS ANGELES When Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp bought comedy website CollegeHumor in 2006, the deal included an asset the billionaire had little use for at the time: Vimeo.
The video-sharing site, which predates YouTube, is now the fulcrum of Diller’s plan to join the crowded online-TV market.
Vimeo will soon introduce an ondemand video service akin to Netfix and Hulu, and is lining up TV shows and staff it hopes will convince people to cough up a monthly fee for yet another TV subscription.
“We’re going to spend real money on programming for the first time ever, and put real marketing money behind it,”IAC chief executive officer Joey Levin said in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Levin, a former investment banker, has been flying to Los Angeles to meet with executives, production companies and record labels.
Vimeo, which has been known primarily as a site offering tools to filmmakers, will commission more original series like High Maintenance, the popular web series about a weed delivery man that Time Warner Inc.’s HBO later picked up.
Vimeo will also acquire and license shows that have already aired elsewhere.
Vimeo may not spend as much to nab content and talent as Netflix, Amazon or Hulu, but its shows also won’t be confused with the user-generated content seen on YouTube or Snapchat.
The company is after edgy, risky and provocative programming. That could include documentaries, action sports, comedy or drama — but not traditional romantic comedies or superhero fare. Levin declined to provide Vimeo’s expected budget.
“Our content will be the kind that gets your heart rate going,”he said. The shows should elicit some physiological response: a squirm or a laugh.
“We’ll look at what our audience watches, and organize that data to help us program.”