Jason Kilar takes the wraps off Vessel

BY SAHIL PATEL

Vessel, the stealthy short-form video startup from former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, is ready to show what it’s got.

The ad-supported and subscription video service — essentially Hulu for short-form video — is launching in “creator preview” mode, allowing video producers to see, play around with, and upload their videos ahead of the consumer launch in early 2015. The subscription version will be priced at $2.99 per month.

Vessel

So what’s the pitch? As previously reported, Vessel wants video creators — from new and traditional media, according to Kilar — to distribute their content exclusively on Vessel for a certain period of time. In most cases, this would be 72 hours, before creators are free to distribute on other video sites, including YouTube.

In return, Vessel is promising multiple forms of revenue, and better rates than what creators are typically used to.

Creators will get 60% of all revenue generated from Vessel subscriptions. The company will dole this money out based on how much time viewers spend on a creator’s channel or content. For instance, if one creator’s videos accounted for 5% of all minutes spent on Vessel’s subscription service, then that creator would get 5% of the subscription dollars set aside for creators.

“During the early access period on Vessel, we estimate that creators will earn approximately $50 for every thousand views (up to 20x the levels earned from free, ad-supported distribution),” said Kilar in a blog post announcing the soft launch.

Read the full story on The Video Ink

Illustration by Max Fleishman