Starz Closes Online Movie Service Vongo; Focus on Partners; Clickstar's Dead Star
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
Starz Entertainment, owned by Liberty Entertainment, has closed down its anemic online movie service Vongo, according to a post on its site. Existing users can use the service until Sept 30th.
The move is not a surprise, considering it did a deal with Verizon in May, where it launched Starz Play, an exact copy of Vongo service but as a white-label for the telco. Vongo was a replacement launched two years ago for its earlier movie service JV with RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) called Starz Ticket. Vongo was one of the few sites offering consumers unlimited downloading of recent movie releases, for a $9.99 monthly fee...Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) Starz Play is is $5.99 per month, and no PPV option (that's offered on Verizon though BB-owned Movielink).
According to Starz spokesperson, this white-labeling is the company's new strategy, and Verizon is the first customer..."We felt like the upside for us from a business standpoint was to wholesale it to affiliates...Vongo had fulfilled its mission by generating interest." Huh? Really?
Meanwhile, the joke-of-a-movie-service ClickStar, backed by Morgan Freeman, has closed down, but that happened more than a few months ago. Its offices were based in the building next to ours here in Santa Monica, and its furniture was sold off in a fire sale earlier this year....we should know: our neighbors Deca bought all the furniture from them.
By Rafat Ali