Earlier this month at the Digital Life Press preview I spent some time at Vongo's table. The company's VOD service reminded me of eMusic's approach to selling music online. Both services operate primarily on subscriptions, rather than direct sales (Vongo does offer pay-per view downloads for $3.99 as well). The Vongo representative took the site through its paces with me, and explained that downloaded Vongo movies could be shared among three devices, however there were currently no portable playback options (PSP, iPod, etc.) That's about to change.

In a press release today, Starz Entertainment announced a partnership between Vongo and Toshiba which would make the Toshiba gigabeat (pictured below) the first "portable media center" licensed to display Vongo content (Starz is the premium movie network behind Vongo and ITVN). The gigabeat comes in 30GB and 60GB configurations. I'm going to be attending the Toshiba in Your Life event tonight in New York and hopefully I'll be able to take the gigabeat for a test drive and report back on the Vongo/Toshiba deal.

After the Digital Life event I had some harsh words for another of Starz' Internet initiatives, ITVN. Vongo was definitely the stronger of the two, and adding a portable option for downloaded content is very forward-thinking. It remains to be seen if the subscription model is sustainable in the VOD space, one of the reasons eMusic has seen success in the digital music market is the lack of DRM on the downloaded files. This is possible because the content offered is off-the-beaten-path indie music titles. Vongo can't get away from the DRM because it's distributing mainstream Hollywood content, both a blessing and a curse in this case. Hopefully, more on this later. — Brian Ward

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