These days, there are so many different ways to monetize your content online. While subscription-based models (known in the industry as SVOD) remain the most common, clever one-off strategies like rentals or purchases (aka TVOD) and live pay-per-view are allowing creators to open up new streams of revenue.

And when paired with a powerful app, creators and brands are seeing those strategies deliver even more return on investment: according to Vimeo’s data, having branded apps can help OTT channels increase subscription video signups by 20% and reduce the number of non-renewing viewers by 33%.

Vimeo OTT enables its creators to attract more subscribers (and earn more money!) by adding pay-per-view, one-time purchases, and rentals to their branded app experiences. Want to see these OTT features in action? Get inspiration from the real folks using them every day, below. 

ISC Sports

ISC Sports is Indiana’s premier sports streamer, offering live and on-demand sports events from every level of play. “Our initial vision was to build a streaming service on our own, but we realized Vimeo had everything we needed with simple-to-use templates — it was music to our ears,” says Greg Maish, President of ISC Sports Network. â€śOur web and app offerings were up and running in a matter of months. Everything we need is built into Vimeo OTT; we just focus on streaming sports events.”

ISC sports offers a subscription option for die-hard Indiana sports fans, but also wanted the choice to advertise and sell tickets for buzzy one-off events. “The flexible monetization options available across both web and app have helped us differentiate what we offer to our sports partners and add more revenue to the bottom line,” notes Greg. “In addition to subscriptions, the ability to accept payment directly in-app helps increase sales for our pay-per-view events.”

ISC sports got their streaming option off the ground initially as a web-only option, but quickly ramped up to include a host of apps, publishing a total of six apps in just three months with the help of the Vimeo team. Since the launch of those apps, ISC Sports has increased their subscriber base by 180%.

Speed 51

Speed51 is the online home of grassroots and short track racing in the U.S., providing editorial and live stream coverage of racing events for fans. What started out 20 years ago as a way for fans to access behind-the-scenes stories and follow major races has developed a huge digital presence with extensive editorial content and a growing OTT channel: Speed51.tv.

“We leaned on live pay-per-view a little more than we originally thought we would because of the pandemic,” says Emily McCarty, General Manager at Speed51. “Racing was one of the first sports to come back, and we saw an influx in customers and viewers, just because of that hunger for fresh content, and for sports in general.” By offering pay-per-view live streams during the pandemic, in addition to their standard SVOD service, local tracks had a chance to recoup some of the losses they saw from live ticket sales — and consumers were able to enjoy live sports once more.

“Pay-per-view is never going to go away. It’s something that, if used and marketed properly, can provide a nice financial bump in your revenues,” adds Emily. “For us, working with Vimeo has been very easy because our content and transaction services are all handled in one place.”

You can read Speed51’s full success story right here.

GazeboTV

With a decades-long history of producing some of Canada’s most beloved movies and miniseries like 1985’s “Anne of Green Gables,” Sullivan Entertainment needed a way to share their classic period dramas with the world. And so, GazeboTV was born. 

“We started developing our own streaming service in 2015 as a way to transition from home video & DVD sales towards monetizing our content digitally,” says Mckenzie Sullivan, Product Manager at Sullivan Entertainment. â€śAs a small production company, we needed to focus our resources on our content and building our audience, not app development. Vimeo allowed us to do just that.”

In order to connect audiences with the classic films they love, GazeboTV wanted to offer a creative option for viewers to watch the content they want, straight from their preferred devices. “We offer a transactional (TVOD) model so our customers can own and have access to digital copies of our content,” adds Mckenzie.

“We transitioned to Vimeo OTT as they supported our transactional model and offered end-to-end platform capabilities,” she says. “We were immediately able to expand our streaming offering to include Android and Android TV apps, and saw a boom in our international TVOD sales as a result.” 

DIRTVision

DIRTVision, World Racing Group’s live and on demand streaming service, is the go-to for viewers looking for high-intensity dirt racing in the U.S. “We’ve been streaming events via DIRTVision for years using different services,” said Cristina Cordova,  Executive Director of Communications, Digital, and Content at World Racing Group. “Once we outgrew our proprietary platform, we transitioned to Vimeo because we needed one partner and a single, reliable platform to run DIRTVision.” 

With over 7,000 hours of racing in its (free!) on-demand Video Vault, the DIRTVision team knew they needed serious support across every device. “With Vimeo OTT our apps — iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Samsung, and Xbox — were up and running in less than five weeks,” says Cristina. “Our original apps took over a year to launch.” 

But it’s not just the Video Vault that gives DIRTVision its value. The streamer has already hosted 400 races this year (and counting), allowing them to utilize live pay-per-view and in-app purchases to keep their engine running. “Vimeo OTT allows us to maintain the continuity of our monthly and annual FAST PASS subscriptions, offer live pay-per-view events, and accept in-app payments,” adds Cristina.

Estimate your income with a Vimeo OTT site today