New York based video platform Vimeo will today premiere a new round of episodes of married couple Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair’s heralded series High Maintenance.
The series centers around a cannabis dealer known simply as “The Guy” (Sinclair) who slips in and out of the lives of his clients.
High Maintenance marks Vimeo’s first foray into original programming with the six episodes launching exclusively on Vimeo On Demand, its open self-distribution platform. High Maintenance previously released thirteen episodes on Vimeo to the acclaim of The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian and Entertainment Weekly.
“Vimeo is dedicated to inspiring creators to share, publish and sell quality content worldwide,” said Kerry Trainor, Vimeo CEO.
Competing with Netflix
Vimeo aims to empower people around the world to create, share, and discover videos and enables creators to sell original films and series worldwide through Vimeo On Demand. The video platform has more than 30 million registered members and reaches a global monthly audience of over 170 million people. With this move, Vimeo could see itself competing with the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime.
The new episodes are available globally and have subtitles translated to German, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Hindi, and Japanese, enabling High Maintenance to reach a wider audience than ever before.
“Vimeo has given us the opportunity of a lifetime, said Katja Blichfeld. “It is a truly enviable position to be in as a creative professional,” added Sinclair. “It was incredible to have such a personal project supported by such a forward-thinking entity.”
The share of video on demand users in the United States reached 33 % in 2013, with the increased usage of smartphones, tablets, and other devices raising expectations for the video on demand industry as viewers become increasingly accustomed to deciding what and where to watch video.