Vdio Movie Streaming Service Closed After Beta Project Flops

Back in April, popular Internet radio service Rdio decided to jump feet-first into the movie streaming business, launching the comparably named Vdio digital movie service as a beta offering. The beta opened up to all users in the United States and UK by June, but over the last six months it has been more or less limping along, and now, on the cusp of the new year, Rdio has elected to close it down.

The Vdio movie service competed with some already solidly established competitors, among them being video powerhouse Netflix and Amazon's Prime Instant, and it was the inability to compete in the market that ultimately spelled its demise. Subscribers were informed of the sudden beta closure in messages sent out today, and a short notice is now up on the website, which directs to a short FAQ page and nothing else.

According to Rdio, Vdio was "not able to deliver the differentiated customer experience we had hope for, and so Vdio is now closed." This is bad news to those who had bought some digital movie rentals they hadn't yet gotten around to watching, but Rdio will make it right in the form of a reimbursement for both purchased and non-expired content.

Such a reimbursement will be sent out in the form of an Amazon gift card, so you'll be able to nab the same content from its video service. Each subscriber was provided with a gift card redemption code within the notification email, which will need to be redeemed online. As far as accounts go, all has been nixed, and so favorites, viewing history, and more is unavailable.

SOURCE: TechCrunch