Vimeo Launches Vimeo Live After Acquisition of Livestream

Livestream’s technological offerings to be integrated into new live-distribution platform

Open-video platform Vimeo has stepped up its game by entering the live-streaming business following the acquisition of video-solutions provider Livestream. As a result of the purchase, Vimeo has unveiled Vimeo Live, its own live-video product, and joined the list of live-streaming destinations for online publishers.

“Live streaming is the number-one request from our creator community this year, and we’re focused on bringing a new level of quality, convenience, and craft to this evolving medium,” said Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud in an official release. “With the launch of Vimeo Live and the addition of Livestream’s impressive team and innovative product suite, we can empower a diverse range of creators to produce beautiful live experiences with professionalism and ease. We are excited to take a leadership role in this large and growing market and look forward to quickly making our mark.”

The move, according to TechCrunch, is the largest acquisition in the company’s history and comes after the company scrapped plans to launch an SVOD service.

When the acquisition is completed, elements of Livestream’s technology will be integrated into the Vimeo Live platform, which, according to Vimeo, will offer the ability to stream, edit, archive, and even monetize videos all within the single platform.

Livestream has long been a major technology player in online video, offering solutions like its Mevo camera and Studio live-production switcher. The company has been tapped on the sports side by the Philadelphia Eagles, Tough Mudder, and numerous college athletic departments.

“We’re thrilled to join Vimeo’s world-class platform, where we can accelerate the adoption of professional-quality live video by combining our tools and capabilities with Vimeo’s video expertise and global scale,” Livestream co-founder/CEO Mark Kornfilt said in a release. “Together, we will be able to go faster and further in making live video a truly ubiquitous form of communication for businesses and organizations.”

Vimeo Live is slated to offer adaptive-streaming capabilities up to 1080p with built-in cloud transcoding. If publishers wish, they will have the option to replace their automatically archived live streams with 4K versions.

Vimeo is also looking to play nicely with many of the major players in this space. Syndication tools brought on from Livestream will enable live distribution to social platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and Twitter. Plus, Vimeo plans to integrate live into its over-the-top (OTT) technology, opening the door for live streaming to branded apps in iOS, Android, Roku, Amazon, Samsung, etc.