Vimeo Opens Custom Online VOD Storefronts For Premium Publishers

Vimeo today announced deals to create online video-on-demand storefronts for long-form content with the publishers behind The Atlantic, TVGuide.com, TV.Com, Metacritic and TEN: The Enthusiast Network.

“What we’re doing is empowering premium publishers to create storefronts on their sites,” said Vimeo’s GM for Audience Networks Greg Clayman. “One important point is that a lot of sites have been investing in video on their sites that is ad-supported only.”

The VOD storefronts, where publishers are actually selling/renting video to their visitors, will create another revenue stream and can build audience engagement, Clayman said. The arrangement is somewhat similar to affiliate storefronts from Amazon and other online retailers, but a key difference is that transactions will take place completely on the publisher’s site, Clayman said.

Companies will have the choice of curating what videos their storefront offers, or letting Vimeo do it based on the site’s core audience and interests. The Atlantic, for instance, has a carefully curated group of video offerings, including documentaries, award winners and films from the Sundance Film Festival.

The deals with the Atlantic Group, CBS Interactive Media and TEN are the first in what Clayman said are numerous publisher deals already under negotiation.

Today’s announcement was the latest of several from Vimeo the past few weeks. It recently announced two original-content series with New Form Digital Studios and a broader deal to develop original video series and provide lower-cost storefront tools to the YouTube creators allied with Disney-owned Maker Studios.

The deals represent an acceleration of the Vimeo On Demand platform the company launched about 18 months ago, Clayman said. They also represent a continuing evolution in online video business.

“We see it as there’s a tipping point,” Clayman said. “A few years ago, the question was, ‘Will people pay for video on the Internet?’ We feel that question has been 100 percent answered.”