Vessel Subscription Video Startup Raises $57.5 Million

CNNMoney: Vessel, a company that is trying to create a subscription service for web video stars, has received another $57.5 million in venture capital funding. The investment, announced in a blog post by Vessel CEO Jason Kilar, comes a few weeks after the service opened to the public. Kilar was previously the founding CEO of Hulu, the TV streaming site backed by NBC, ABC and Fox. So investors and media companies have been paying attention to his new venture. Vessel’s pitch is that it solves a nagging problem for the web video industry: how not to rely on advertising to make money. It charges $3 a month for what it calls “early access” to the latest videos by some of the stars.