Vimeo On Demand is shutting down: where to move your catalog
By OAcast Team ·
Yes, we’re a competitor writing about a competitor’s shutdown. So the terms up front: every date here comes from Vimeo’s own shutdown notice and seller FAQ as of September 2026, we’ll say when the other exits are the better choice, and we’ll say plainly where our own product fits. If you sell films, courses, or a back catalog through Vimeo On Demand, the calendar below decides whether you keep your buyers or start again.
The four dates that matter
| Date | What changes |
|---|---|
| 22 August 2026 | No new uploads to Vimeo On Demand |
| 21 September 2026 | No new purchases or subscriptions — the day your income stops |
| 21 October 2026 | Final payouts expected to be completed |
| 20 November 2026 | Full shutdown — buyers lose access to everything they bought |
The headline date is 20 November. The commercial one is 21 September: after it nobody can buy from you on Vimeo again, and what you’ve earned waits for the final payout cycle in October. Vimeo says payouts go out automatically to your registered payment method, with an exception for balances under the usual threshold — you don’t need to do anything to get paid. You do need to do something about everything else.
What doesn’t come with you
Your buyers paid Vimeo, not you. Vimeo granted them access, and on 20 November Vimeo withdraws it. Purchases and rentals don’t transfer to another platform, and neither does the billing relationship — there is no “move my customers” button, because the customers were never yours in the sense that counts.
Export whatever customer data your seller dashboard still offers, today. Then accept the lesson: on a marketplace, the merchant of record owns the customer. That is why the choice below deserves more than a weekend.
Exit 1: Vimeo Streaming (formerly Vimeo OTT)
Vimeo’s suggested next stop is its other product — renamed Vimeo Streaming in 2025, though you’ll still see the old name in plenty of places. It gives you a branded channel instead of a marketplace listing, and its Starter pricing is honest and hard to beat at small scale: no platform fee, just $1 per subscriber per month plus 2.5% + 30¢ per transaction, or 10% + 50¢ on rentals and purchases (as of September 2026).
The structure doesn’t change. Vimeo is still the merchant of record, still pays you monthly on the 15th for the previous month, and still holds the relationship with every buyer. Live streaming and branded apps sit on the custom-priced Enterprise tier. Before you sign, ask what happens to your customers the next time a product line is retired.
When it wins: lowest entry cost in the category, a world-class player, and TV-platform distribution at the enterprise tier. Full comparison: OAcast vs Vimeo Streaming.
Exit 2: a membership platform (Patreon)
If the catalog was really a way to fund ongoing work — a series, a channel, a community — a one-off sales marketplace may have been the wrong shape all along. Patreon flips it to recurring support: free to start, with a 10% platform fee on earnings for creators who joined after August 2025, plus payment processing and currency fees; all-in runs about 14% on a $25 pledge and closer to 19% on a $5 one, because the flat 30¢ bites hardest on small pledges (as of September 2026).
You still get no custom domain and no branding of your own, and iOS signups route through Apple’s in-app purchases, which inflate iOS prices. What you gain is discovery: Patreon says its discovery features drive over $200 million a year to creators. It’s the one exit here that actively brings you an audience.
When it wins: your audience already lives there, you’re not ready to run a destination of your own, and the work is ongoing rather than finished. Full comparison: OAcast vs Patreon.
Exit 3: your own site (OAcast — that’s us)
The one we built. Your films live on your domain, under your brand, behind a pay-per-view pass that is bought once and kept for good — a single film, a season, or a mix of videos and articles, as you decide. Subscriptions, pay-what-you-want memberships, and one-off tips run alongside it, gating the same library. Every charge lands in your own Stripe account. We never hold your money, and we never become the merchant of record.
That last sentence is the answer to this whole post. If you ever leave OAcast, your subscriptions keep billing your Stripe and your buyers stay your customers, with their emails and payment history in an account you control. Nobody can retire you.
The rest is built for a catalog that wants to be found: server-rendered pages with structured data so each title ranks on your domain, articles for director’s notes and press, and an import that pulls videos by URL from wherever the masters live now. Pricing is a flat platform fee (from €99/mo) plus a small transaction percentage — no per-subscriber meter. On the Broadcast plan, migration is concierge: you bring the files and the buyer list, and we rebuild the catalog with you.
Where we’re honest: you pay more than $0 on day one, we don’t run ad-supported video, we don’t offer TV apps today, and we bring you no audience — the trailer stays on YouTube, and discovery is your job. One more thing to read before deciding: our guide to monetization models. A catalog with irregular new releases sells better as passes than as subscriptions.
Exit 4: build it
The honest fourth door. With engineers, unusual requirements, and patience measured in quarters, you can build on Mux or Cloudflare Stream and own every line. The real numbers are in what it actually costs to build a streaming platform; the bill arrives in year two.
The migration checklist
Whichever exit you take, the order is the same:
- Get the masters and the metadata down now. Titles, descriptions, artwork, captions, trailers — everything you’ll re-enter somewhere else. Assume nothing in a seller dashboard survives 20 November.
- Export your customers while you can. Every email and transaction record you can download. It’s the only thing that makes step three possible.
- Decide how you’ll honor past purchases. A buyer who paid you for a film and loses it on 20 November blames you, not Vimeo. A free pass, a code, or a discounted upgrade on the new site, sent by email, turns a grievance into a second purchase.
- Price for the new model. One-off passes typically sell for 2–5× a monthly subscription. If releases are irregular, lead with passes and add a membership once you have a rhythm.
- Fix every link. Festival pages, social bios, press coverage, and old newsletters all point at a Vimeo URL that will stop resolving. Redirect what you control; email the rest.
- Announce before 21 September. After that date you can’t sell on Vimeo, but you can still reach the people who bought. Tell them where you’re going, and why it’s the last move they’ll have to make.
The lesson worth keeping
Every marketplace shutdown has the same shape: the platform keeps the customers, because the customers were always the platform’s. The only protection is structural — a domain you own and a payment account with your name on it. Vimeo On Demand isn’t the first product retired out from under a catalog of independent work, and it won’t be the last.
To see your catalog rebuilt on your own domain, with the buyers in your Stripe this time, book a demo — bring the export.