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Coming Soon placeholder thumbnails on Vimeo OTT

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This feature requires a Vimeo OTT account.

Coming Soon placeholder thumbnails let you build anticipation for upcoming releases directly inside your Vimeo OTT site and apps. When you schedule a video for a future release date, a placeholder thumbnail with a release-date overlay automatically appears in your catalog so viewers know exactly what's coming and when. The overlay is removed automatically the moment the video goes live, with no further action required from you.

This article explains what Coming Soon placeholder thumbnails are, how to enable them on your site, how to schedule content so they show up, and what viewers see when they click a Coming Soon tile.

In this article:

What are Coming Soon placeholder thumbnails?

A Coming Soon placeholder thumbnail is a tile that automatically appears in your catalog for any video that has a scheduled future release date. The placeholder includes:

  • A thumbnail image — the custom image you upload to the video.
  • A release-date overlay — a label that displays the scheduled release date (for example, "Coming May 16") so viewers know exactly when the video will be available.
  • The video's title and metadata — displayed beneath the thumbnail just like any other video in your catalog.

Coming Soon placeholders aren't playable yet, but they're still clickable — when a viewer taps one, they land on a dedicated screen with the release date and an option to be notified when the video goes live (see "What viewers see when they click a Coming Soon tile" below). The overlay and the Coming Soon screen are removed automatically as soon as the release date passes and the video goes live — you don't need to take any action.

How to enable Coming Soon placeholder thumbnails

Coming Soon placeholder thumbnails are controlled by a single site-wide toggle. Once the toggle is on, placeholders are displayed automatically for any video with a scheduled future release date.

  1. Log in to your Vimeo OTT admin.
  2. Navigate to Manage > Site in the navigation bar.
  3. Select the Content tab.
  4. Scroll to the Coming soon section and turn on the Show coming soon videos in collections toggle.
  5. Click Save to apply your changes.

💡 Tip: When the toggle is off, scheduled videos remain hidden from the catalog until their release time, just like before this feature existed. Turning the toggle on is what surfaces the Coming Soon placeholder, the release-date overlay, and the "Notify me" option to viewers.

Where Coming Soon placeholders appear

Coming Soon placeholders are displayed across all surfaces of your Vimeo OTT site and apps wherever the scheduled video would normally appear, including:

  • Web catalog and category pages
  • Search results
  • Collection pages, including episodic series
  • iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and other supported branded apps

How to schedule a video so a Coming Soon placeholder is displayed

Once the Coming soon toggle is on (see above), a placeholder appears automatically for any video with a scheduled future release date — no per-video setting required.

To schedule a video for a future release date:

  1. Log in to your Vimeo OTT admin.
  2. Navigate to Content > Videos and select the video you want to schedule.
  3. On the video edit page, select Distribution > Publish.
  4. Open the Schedule release dropdown and choose Set publish time.
  5. Set the date and time you want the video to become available. Times are based on your current location.
  6. Click Save in the upper right corner.

Once the release date is saved, the Coming Soon placeholder will appear in your catalog automatically. When the scheduled time is reached, the overlay is removed and the video becomes playable.

What viewers see when they click a Coming Soon tile

Coming Soon tiles are interactive. When a viewer clicks or taps one in the catalog, instead of opening the video player they're taken to a dedicated Coming Soon screen that includes:

  • A blurred version of the thumbnail — displayed with a soft blur to signal that the content isn't available yet.
  • The scheduled release date — shown clearly so viewers know exactly when to come back.
  • A "Notify me when it's available" button — viewers who tap this will receive a notification the moment the video is published. They can opt in once per video.

The Notify me action does not require any extra setup on your side — it is enabled automatically whenever Coming Soon is turned on. Notifications are delivered to viewers via the same channels supported by your OTT site.