Starz Shutters Vongo Video Service

Pay-TV network Starz is shutting down its Vongo movie download service... and wants folks to try out Verizon's Starz Play.

Liberty Media’s pay-TV subsidiary Starz has decided to pull the plug on its subscription movie download service Vongo. Vongo has been operating for more than two and a half years, and offered access to more than 1,000 movies and video titles for a flat $9.99 per month fee, along with pay-per-view titles at $3.99 apiece. Selections could be viewed on PCs and Windows Media-compatible portable devices. However, the service never really caught fire in the consumer marketplace, and the operation quietly stopped accepting new subscribers back on August 1. Effective September 30, 2008, the service will go dark, and selections downloaded from the service will no longer be playable.

Starz hopes Vongo users will migrate to Starz Play, a virtually identical service offered by Verizon for $5.99 a month. Starz is reportedly looking to partner with additional distributors, hoping that bundling a movie subscription service with broadband Internet connectivity or other services will appeal to consumers.