Vongo is Gone-go
This certainly isn’t shocking: Starz Entertainment has shut down online movie service Vongo. A visit to the site shows the following message:
The writing was on the wall for the service when the company announced Starz Play, a white-label movie download service for Verizon, in May. But troubles for Vongo started long before that. Early on, customers had big issues with pre-installed software, promotional pricing and customer service.
I’m not sure Starz has learned its lesson though. According to the Starz Play FAQ, you have to still download and install software in order to use the service — a hassle customers don’t want to go through — especially since the movie selection is pretty stale at this point (Spider-Man 3, Ratatouille).
Hat tip to paidContent.
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As I recall, Vongo’s initial launch announcement was the first of a flurry of legit content deals in early 2006 (this was way back in the day when content wasn’t available everywhere), so this is kind of the end of an era.
Liz Gannes on August 12th, 2008 at 8:31 am - Permalink
[...] [via NewTeeVee] [...]
CrunchGear » Archive » Vongo shutting down, paving way for Starz Play on August 12th, 2008 at 10:30 am - Permalink
I must admit, even though I hated launching Parallels on my mac to use this service, I did really like it. I guess it could never compete with Netflix on-demand.
Muhammad Saleem on August 12th, 2008 at 10:38 am - Permalink
[...] to Pony Up Billions for Premium Vids Don’t let the deaths of Vongo and ClickStar fool you — there will be a market for Internet-delivered movies and TV shows, [...]
People to Pony Up Billions for Premium Vids « NewTeeVee on August 13th, 2008 at 9:12 am - Permalink
[...] Vudu gets 99 cent movies on demand — Well, if porn can’t save Vudu, perhaps this move can, says Mashable. Meanwhile, another online movie service starting with a ‘V’, Vongo, is gone, says NewTeeVee. [...]
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