HBO acquires Vimeo’s first original series, High Maintenance

Updated at 10:13 and 10:21 a.m. PDT with more details from Vimeo.

HBO just “acquired” Vimeo’s first original series.

Back in 2013 a web series called High Maintenance went viral. A year later, Vimeo announced an intriguing move: it commissioned a new series of that show and released it under a pay-to-stream model.

Now the show is in HBO’s hands. Vimeo tells us it played no role in the deal — it was an exchange between the creators and HBO. We don’t know when HBO plans to premier the next season of High Maintenance, but the timing couldn’t be better: HBO launched its first serious streaming product this month, and today is (you guessed it!) 4/20.

We asked Vimeo if future episodes will appear on Vimeo, and if the second and first seasons of High Maintenance will remain on Vimeo. A company spokesperson told us the following: “We’re in collaborative and active discussions for all those points right now.”

This move says a lot about Vimeo. By commissioning original content, it seemed Vimeo wanted to challenge the likes of Netflix and Amazon. And yet, the series is now in HBO’s hands and Vimeo is still not top-of-mind among cord-cutters (at least, that’s what I’ve observed).

Still, it’s interesting to see Vimeo serve as a launchpad for High Maintenance, as Vimeo chief Kerry Trainor puts it:

The pickup by HBO is incredible validation for the show as well as the global creative community developing and releasing innovative programming directly on Vimeo. The barriers between online and traditional distribution continue to erode and we look forward to continuing to support High Maintenance as well as future projects from Ben and Katja.