ROK Entertainment Group, the UK-based developer of mobile entertainment services and technologies, has announced the provision of the worlds first video-on-demand (VOD) Mobile TV service streamed over mass market 2.5G GPRS. The service is available now on ROK TV.
ROK TV is available as a subscription service from the ROK TV website, with subscriptions starting at 0.99p per channel per month, or 9.99 per month for all 22 channels, with the first two months free. Aimed at people with a data package already included in their mobile tariff, ROK TV channels include Fox News, ITN, National Geographic, Fifth Gear, Popworld, Sports News Television, Xtreme Sports, Reality TV and the made-for-mobile channel, Monkey News Network.
The VOD facility on the non-live channels offered by ROK allows the viewer to fast-forward, pause and rewind the content.
This is a massive technological breakthrough with regards to Mobile TV, going forward” says ROK Chairman and CEO, Jonathan Kendrick. We are now able to offer true on-demand Mobile TV over mass-market 2.5G via GPRS to the ever-growing number of people with a GPRS data package included in their mobile tariff.
Recent research from Screen Digest forecast that Mobile TV will attract 140 million subscribers globally by 2011, generating revenues of 3.1bn. ROK TV is currently being deployed to 30 selected mobile network operators worldwide, with the most recent service launches being with AIS in Thailand and Telenor in Pakistan.
As Mobile TV is usually watched for just a few minutes at a time, the content available must not only be instantly engaging to the viewer but should also allow the viewer to choose what they want to watch when they want to watch it” adds Kendrick. Thats exactly what weve now achieved with ROK TV.”