@ NCTA: Starz Vongo Outperforming Starz Ticket; Don’t Hold Breath For Media Center Version

@ NCTA: On The Floor -- VongoNot quite sure what this says about Starz Ticket but new download service Vongo had as many subscribers during its first three months as the older service in partnership with RealNetworks did in its first 18 months. No hard numbers yet so it’s hard to tell what that actually means in terms of business. That factoid came from Bob Greene, SVP-advanced services, as we sat in the company’s W Hotel-like booth, where champagne and strawberries are the refreshments and the private meeting space is a stretch black hummer. (Seriously, after our interview I saw Tivo’s Tom Rogers climb in for a meeting with Greene and Robert Clasen, Starz president and CEO.)

We also talked about Vongo and Windows Media Center. When I wrote about Vongo’s CES launch, I reported that the service wasn’t optimized for Windows Media Center Edition — it works on MCE computers but isn’t part of Spotlight. Greene says that isn’t going to change until next-gen and recently delayed Vista Media Center Edition rolls out. From his perspective, there’s no reason to spend resources designing for the bland XP-based version. Greene: “We’d rather do something right as opposed to doing it fast.”
Related: @ CES 2006: Why Vongo And The PC Media Center Don’t Play Well Together …. Yet
Starz To Launch Portable Movie Download Service; Starz Ticket’s Mercy Killing

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