The founding CEO of Hulu, Jason Kilar, is about to release a new online video service that aims to make web video shows worth paying for.
His company is called Vessel, and its pitch is simple: For three bucks a month, subscribers can gain early access to web video series from popular creators.
“Watch your favorites here first” is one of the tag lines of the business.
Kilar and his investors — including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — are betting that the subscription revenue model of television can be extended to the Internet, where videos are supported almost entirely by advertising revenue.
YouTube and a number of other online video hubs have experimented with subscription options with little success. Kilar said Vessel is different because it adopts a “windowing” approach.
Shows on Vessel will be available only to paying subscribers for at least the first three days. Then they can become more widely available on YouTube and other free sites.
In both cases, the shows are also supported by advertising. The difference is that Vessel adds a subscription component.
In an interview, Kilar said the subscription revenues will help video creators “invest in ever-more-ambitious content,” thereby improving the quality of web video over time.
He called this the “critical, missing piece” for the burgeoning Internet video industry.
Kilar is well-known in media circles for leading the creation of Hulu, the online video hub co-owned by NBC, ABC and Fox. Hulu specializes in television episodes and movies; Vessel is about short-form video.
“Our focus is on anything that’s not film or TV,” he said.
Vessel has begun to sign big YouTube stars and some boldface names from television, like Alec Baldwin. On Wednesday the site officially launches for video creators, ahead of a first quarter 2015 launch for the general public.