Starz To Launch Portable Movie Download Service; Starz Ticket’s Mercy Killing

vongo1.gifUpdated: read below: Not deterred by the rather lackluster response to its online subscription movie service Starz Ticket, the cable TV co is launching is launching a new movie streaming and download service that allows consumers to view full-length studio films, concerts and TV shows on portable devices powered by Microsoft software. Even though the story above characterizes it as a portable movie service, the online part is the biggest component of the movie service.

It will be announced at CES.

The service, dubbed “Vongo,” is available for a monthly subscription of $9.99 and will eventually include more than 1,000 movies, short films and other programs.

Starz said its Vongo service will also be a key feature of the Sony Connect video service set to launch later this year.

Some features:

– Users will be able to download as many films as they want each month to up to three devices

– A smaller number of films will be available several months sooner for a pay-per-view fee of $3.99.

– Subscribers will also be able to watch a live, streaming video feed of the Starz TV channel.

The site should be here, it seems, though it is not live yet…..site’s launched now

NYT: Starz will continue to offer the Starz Ticket service through RealNetworks, but will put all its promotional effort into Vongo. Greene said that the new Microsoft-based service was easier for consumers to use and that the company’s deal with Microsoft was more economically advantageous than its deal with RealNetworks, although he declined to be specific about the terms.

Updated: Much as the comapnies will spin it, Vongo effectively means the end of Starz Ticket…the reason being Starz wanted to move to the broader Windows platform rather than the more limiting Real platform. It probably decided to go in with a different name because of legal and contractual reasons with RealNetworks (there were a lot of murky legal things behind the Starz Ticket launch in 2004….ask anyone involved with it)…this is all my speculation, but I will not be far off the mark on this one.

Updated II: Well, my hunch is right…in a Reuters story, this one explains it: “Starz executives said they were in discussions to ‘migrate the service to Vongo.'”

Also, the story says Starz has access to about 40 percent of all first-run Hollywood films made available to cable subscription services such as HBO and Viacom’s Showtime. The cable network has deals for exclusives on new releases from Walt Disney Co. and Sony, typically a year after movies have been released in theaters.

Related:

Starz’s Online Movie Service Costs

NCTA: Starz: Movie Download Service Isn’t Cannibalizing Video Subs

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