• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, June 28, 2019

TV and video growth -- on all platforms -- traditional, digital and otherwise may be focusing too much on the big popular wide-reaching entertainment content.

For many, YouTube has wrapped itself in this kind of business -- especially when it comes to its YouTube TV’s digital service of traditional TV networks.  It leaves some of its user-generated roots behind.

Nothing wrong with that. But digital video platform Vimeo sees itself in a different light. In a CNN report, its CEO sees Vimeo as a niche service, one that is “sort of the more indie, higher-end, more artistic version of YouTube.”

This doesn’t mean pure-play digital media competitors, like Vimeo, are left to pick up the scraps. It says revenue grew 25% last year.

It also sees itself as a software-as-a-services company, versus a Netflix. It's a company that creates popular original entertainment content. It wants to be a video distributor of a sort for small businesses and other modest groups -- like yoga studios and churches.

Is there room for this in the digital video space? Sure, the digital video business is still growing. But imagine if a Vimeo came at a earlier time, say a decade or two ago -- like a new channel in the still-growing cable TV network business?

What it shows is that digital video advertising businesses can still find positive business segments. Perhaps more are on the way -- which would be good news for the entire category.

Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud tells CNN: "In five years, every small business should have a video strategy."

If that's the case, then big-time digital video expansion -- separate from whatever traditional TV/movie companies and YouTube are trying to accomplish with wider-reaching digital/OTT businesses -- will keep making out-of-the-box moves to accommodate new interested business partners.