It’s always good to get bigger and better. And yet my first reaction to the news that HBO had picked up High Maintenance was one of disappointment, like they took it away from Vimeo, where the web series has lived for over two seasons. But that’s wrong, right?
“That’s totally wrong,”Greg Clayman, GM of Audience Networks at Vimeo, laughed at me over the phone. “We popped bottles of champagne over here.”
It’s sort of a big deal for content creators to know that HBO is finally paying attention to all the good stuff out there on the web. High Maintenance is the first web series they’ve picked up. But doesn’t it matter that people won’t be hanging around Vimeo or paying $1.99 an episode? Clayman said:
Our whole thing about [High Maintenance} was that it’s high quality….its not, to be frank, a reality, teen targeted thing, It’s beautifully written, beautifully designed and that is the kind of thing that we want to be a home for.
Vimeo has long been a home for professionals. And more content will come through their doors. Firefly creators Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion raised money through an Indiegogo campaign for a new series called Con Man. And you’ll be able to see it on Vimeo once its produced. Clayman told me:
When we launched Vimeo on Demand, the first content we saw come knock in the door were independent films and documentaries. In our short history of VOD, there’s a history of quality content. Longer-form, highly produced content. We continue to be a home for high quality
. It’s going to be stuff that ends up on in theaters and other channels, but we like to see it all come through Vimeo.
As long as the pros are coming through Vimeo to share their content, there are reasons to pop bottles.