Vessel’s windowed video service is now open to the public

Vessel has exited its beta phase and its online video service is now available to all viewers. The service, started by former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, is offering exclusive access to videos to its members for a small monthly subscription of $2.99 a month. To further build up the viewing audience, Vessel is offering a year of free access for anybody who signs up in the first 72 hours following the launch.

The goal is to attract the stars of various channels that would normally be on YouTube with the option to window their work, making new clips available first to paying fans before opening the content up to other free access channels, including Vessel’s ad-supported tier. It’s a business model that has generated increasing amounts of traction among content creators and among leaders from the video and music businesses.

We gave the Vessel beta a Test Drive last month, and the service seemed to have a strong foundation that will only improve as more content sources sign on.