Vimeo, the on-demand online video platform, has acquired VHX, adding a subscription capability that could help it compete with larger players including Netflix and Amazon.

VHX makes technology that allows publishers and individual creators to sell subscriptions to their work. The deal, for an undisclosed sum, will allow video creators to charge a regular fee for their channels, rather than just sell or rent out videos to its 280 million viewers.

Vimeo chief executive Kerry Trainor said it had acquired the start-up at the start of what he called the "second phase of online video", where people realise it is worth paying for premium ad-free video:"People will customise and spend their entertainment dollars on things they are really passionate about, rather things that will go unwatched." – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016