'ROK-in' The USA!

BRITAIN’S ONLY INDEPENDENT 2.5G MOBILE TV SERVICE AND MOBILE VIDEO RETAIL PUBLISHER TO LAUNCH TV AND MOBILE DOWNLOAD SERVICES

ROK Entertainment, the first UK company to stream multi-channel TV programs direct to mass-market 2.5G mobile phones announced today that it has begun to market it’s innovative products and content services from it’s office in California.   

Among those services will be ROK TV, as well as ROK Media Store, a service where movies, television shows, music videos, music, games, podcasts, and even printed materials can be downloaded directly from the Internet  for storage on mobile phone memory cards using ROK’s patented technologies.

ROK Entertainment Group US has been operating since the beginning of the year as ROK’s US subsidiary, laying the groundwork for US operations and working to license content for the global ROK network.

ROK TV US will launch with 10 news, music and entertainment channels, initially, containing a variety of live channels and made-for-mobile programs. In addition, future channels will be available on a video-on-demand (VOD) basis and will include music videos, comedies, cartoons, weather and lifestyle channels - with more channels due to be added in the coming weeks.  ROK TV will also allow subscribers to order individual channels rather than customers being required to buy the whole package. 

ROK TV plays full-screen on compatible mobile handsets and, via GPRS, at a higher frame-rate than any other existing TV-for-mobile service.

In addition, ROK announced in mid-March the impending launch in the UK of it’s ‘Black Box’ set-top technology which routes a customers home TV service to their mobile via broadband. ROK Black Box (code-named BLCX) will be available for a monthly rental fee of around $20 and is expected to be available in time for the World Cup soccer tornament this summer. ROK Black Box will launch in the US later this year.

In addition to their TV services, ROK also announced the development and upcoming launch of the ROK Media Store. The ROK Media Store is an online content-provision service that allows people to download movies, videos, music, games, etc through their computers in the same way they download music to MP3 or portable video players like the ipod. 

“Most consumers don’t realize that most smartphones are even more powerful than the iPod and much more versatile” stated Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK Entertainment. “With the ROK Media Store, consumers can download hours of video, hundreds of songs, and dozens of games onto a single 256M, 512M or 1G memory card for play on their smartphone whenever and wherever they like.

“Why carry 2 devices around with you when the ROK Media Store enables your mobile to become your complete entertainment and communication device?” Added Kendrick.

One key element that gives ROK an instant leadership position in these groundbreaking services is ROK’s patented technologies and processes. Late last year, ROK applied for and was granted a patent for storing audio-visual content on memory cards for play on mobile phones and other mobile devices. There are some 34 separate claims in ROK’s overall patent applications covering the automated process for converting content to memory cards and the full-screen playback of content on mobile devices as well as ROK’s proprietary content security and DRM solutions. 

Not only does ROK plan to offer consumers an amazing breadth of content from it’s own Media Store, but they plan to also offer their mobile TV and Media Store technologies as ‘white label’ solutions to other companies. 

“We are working with a number major online portals, mobile network operators, handset manufacturers, media companies, and even retailers to integrate ROK TV and Media Store technologies into their current mobile content activities under their own brand names” said Bruce Renny of ROK.  “The technologies and services we have developed are perfect complements  to their existing businesses. 

“ After all, there are hundreds of millions of phones flooding into the market with blank memory cards and, until now, no real way for consumers to fill them with high-quality entertainment content.”

Both ROK TV and the ROK Media Store services are available to play on a variety of handsets including Symbian, Java, and Windows smartphones with new handsets being added each week. 

ROK Group have licensed award-winning content from such companies as Turner Broadcasting, Viacom, BBC, ITV amongst many others.

*ROK TV is available on the following handsets:
Nokia 3230, 3650, 6260, 6600, 6630, 6670, 6680, 6681, 6682, 7610, N70 and N90.
Samsung D720 and D730
Sony Ericsson D750i, K600, K608i, K750i, W550i, W600i and W800i