Has anyone here investigated starting an OTT channel from Vimeo or one of their competitors?
If you’re not familiar, OTT (Over The Top) means you’re creating your own platform for videos that you then sell to the consumer as a subscription service (SVOD) or transactional per video (TVOD).
Vimeo OTT is the backend for Troma Now and others. At the base price you get a website. At the enterprise price you get Roku, IOS, TvOS apps among others.
Vimeo pitches it to non-filmmakers as something for your Yoga studio or whatever. Start a TV channel to improve your brand etc.
There are other OTT providers that I’ve just started researching.
With distribution being a frustrating game, once in a while I think, let me just start my own channel. Get a bunch of indie or educational content together.
Then I remember that the general public is unlikely to subscribe to something without star power. I remember Indie Rights had a Roku channel with hundreds of titles, but who would go there? Only Indie Rights filmmakers to check out their stuff I suspect. The channel is currently broken on my Roku, left to wither on the vine.
Anyway, what are your thoughts?
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I would definitely try Vimeo OTT if I was making movies, shows, etc., Mike Boas. There's a lot of features, and the plan is super cheap! Yeah, it's hard to get the general public to subscribe to something without star power. I think having a unique marketing strategy would help.
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My big takeaway is that distribution opportunities continue to grow and some will thrive and some may not but its all good news for creators. Star power is relative (a star in a lower budgert cable TV movie is different than the star of a studio feature film). This may be one of the ways that influencers or YouTubers who want to act can leverage their followings into more narrative fare. Or a way for actors with names but who may not be in a heighetend window can make a show happen. A lot for writers, directors and producers to consider for sure.
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I got into a conversation with someone on another forum that said Youtube is the way to go for independents. Don’t try to get pennies for your film through Filmhub, just put it on YouTube and get it seen.
That would have appeal if I could actually charge money on Yourube!