Vimeo Ends Plans for Subscription Video Service

Today Vimeo has officially put an end to their subscription video service. “Vimeo has confirmed that it has decided not to proceed in offering a subscription based original program service scheduled to begin in ’18,” a Vimeo spokeswoman said in a statement. The company declined to comment further about what the change in strategy would mean for the business.

This is a major about-face for Vimeo, which had plans to target Netflix, Hulu and others with a subscription video service. Details are very thin about what he service would have been but in a shareholder letter last November from IAC CEO Joey Levin that Vimeo had a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to, following in Netflix’s footsteps, deliver compelling subscription viewing experiences for consumers in the market for pay TV.”

For now it seems that this once in a lifetime “opportunity” is now over as Vimeo has decided to not go head to head with Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video.

“This was a difficult decision – the idea of pursuing an SVOD service for Vimeo has always been intriguing, and I would have loved to see the incredibly talented Alana Mayo’s programming vision realized here at Vimeo,” Levin said in a statement confirming Mayo’s departure. “She and her team are creative, sharp, risk-takers, and I believe will all, to a person, have an incredible future in programming. But the opportunity ahead for Vimeo to empower creators is too large and too important for us to attack with anything other than absolute focus and clarity.”

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