LOS ANGELES—Liberty Media Corp.’s Starz pay TV subsidiary is pulling the plug on its Vongo movie-download service in favor of letting Verizon Communications Inc. and other affiliates market a similar service.
Starz said Tuesday it notified visitors to Vongo’s Web site that it was no longer accepting new subscribers as of Aug. 1 and that the Vongo service will cease after Sept. 30.
It directed users to sign up for Starz Play, an identical service offered through Verizon for $5.99 a month, regardless of whether they are already a Verizon customer. Starz is looking to partner with additional service providers.
Vongo, which Starz sold directly to consumers, gave users unlimited access to about 2,000 movies from Starz’s pay TV library for viewing over PCs and portable devices for $9.99 a month. A subscription to the pay TV channel is not required.
Most new releases on Starz’ pay TV channels are from Sony Corp., The Walt Disney Co. and Liberty’s Overture Films and some current offerings include “Ratatouille,” “Spider-Man 3” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”
Starz declined to say how many customers had signed up for Vongo since it launched in January 2006.
The company said the move would return it to being a wholesale provider of movie services to affiliates, which can bundle the offerings and sell them directly to consumers. It’s the approach Starz now takes with pay television.
“It’s easier to sell services like this if they’re packaged with high-speed data or a subscription to a Starz channel,” Starz spokesman Tom Southwick said. “Our affiliates can do that.”
Starz Entertainment LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Englewood, Colo.-based Liberty, is hoping other cable and telecoms companies will also carry the service, Southwick said.
Verizon has 8.3 million broadband Internet customers, including 1.4 million users of its FiOS fiber-optic TV service.
Verizon spokeswoman Christy Reap said the company has not begun selling Starz Play in a bundle, but that the company was pleased with consumer response to the service.
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On the Net:
Vongo,
Verizon Communications Inc.’s Starz Play:
