Vodafone-Turkey subscribers have a new way to enjoy video streamed right to their handset, and it’s coming to them courtesy of ROK Entertainment Group. Vodafone and MobilTurk, ROK’s regional representative, will offer up both live and on-demand video content for a weekly subscription of roughly US$4, payable via SMS, with the first week being free.

ROK’s mobile video streaming technology is optimised for 2.5G (EDGE) networks around the globe, which brings the service to the mass-market stage in some countries where 3G isn’t fully deployed, or an unlimited data plan is prohibitively expensive.

If this isn’t a match made in heaven, I don’t know what is, seriously. Here you have Qualcomm’s MediaFLO technology leaking money like a sieve, and meanwhile, startup GoldSpot Media, who specializes in putting ads in mobile TV broadcasts, gets a $3 million cash injection. Sounds to me like these two companies need to hook up and have lunch.

GoldSpot Media’s CEO was previously with VIrgin Mobile as a consultant in device management and video streaming, and his new company focuses on delivering non-intrusive advertising content in broadcast and streaming mobile video. We’re all used to having commercials in TV, I don’t see an issue with a quick 5-10 second ad pre-rolling before Mobile TV content.

Congrats to GoldSpot, and Qualcomm, you’d better find these guys quickly!

Dan Frommer has taken a look at AT&T’s upcoming MediaFLO mobile TV service, as well as Verizon’s V CAST TV offering, to see what’s really needed for Mobile TV to take off in the U.S. As we know, Qualcomm is particularly interested in what needs to be done with MediaFLO, as well.

Frommer contends that only a few small steps would go a long way:

* Build MediaFlo chips into every phone — or at least most phones. Almost a year after launch, Verizon Wireless still only offers four phones that work with MediaFlo — chunky gadgets ranging in price from $99 to $299.

Not surprisingly, the service has hardly taken off: Research firm M:Metrics estimates that 800,000 VZW subscribers — about 1.25% of their overall subs — watch programmed video, including MediaFlo. The fact that you can’t get MediaFlo on an iPhone could be a deal-breaker for a lot of people.

* Figure out mobile rights so mobile TV channels show the same thing as regular TV. Especially sports, which might actually be something we’d watch on a cellphone in short chunks. According to MediaFlo’s program guide, neither NFL playoff game on Sunday was available to cellphone viewers.

* Sell it for less. Verizon charges $15 per month for MediaFlo, on top of regular data plans. That’s too much. Make it cheaper and offer it for free to AT&T U-Verse or satellite TV subscribers.

What do you think? I have to say I agree with Dan’s points, though I don’t know if I’m still sold on Mobile TV.

Qualcomm recently filed a statement with the SEC detailing the investments on MediaFLO for 2007. MediaFLO is the digital TV broadcast technology that Qualcomm backs, competing with Nokia’s DVB-H and other standards. MediaFLO lost out in Europe, but already has Verizon Wireless on board in the U.S., with AT&T to follow suit shortly this year.

According to the report, Qualcomm’s QSI segment, which includes MediaFLO, lost a whopping $240 million smackers in 2007, nearly double the $133 million they lost in 2006. Looks like they sunk $70 million of the losses into ‘cost of services revenues related to the commencement of services’ and $42 million increase in selling, general, and administrative expenses. The whopper, though, is a supposed $20 million bucks related to ‘cooperative marketing expenses.’ They must have had some massive mis-directed marketing then, because I live in a MediaFLO-covered area, and I didn’t see much of anything promoting Verizon’s V Cast TV, aside from the vinyl banners stretched across the storefront. I really, REALLY hope they didn’t drop $20 million on those banners.

In any case, it’s not the best assurance that Mobile TV is going to be big if it’s bleeding money like this. Perhaps having both of the United States’ biggest carriers on board will make a change? Guess we’ll find out in the next 6 months or so.

Details have come out of AT&T’s second MediaFLO launch phone, and given the specs, it’s sure to be available on the lower-end. The Samsung SGH-A827 ‘Access’ is the second device for AT&T (the LG Vu aka Prada is the first) that looks to have support MediaFLO for digital TV. Given that Verizon Wireless’ cheapest MediaFLO V CAST TV-compatible handset is $99, AT&T may be launching with a price-war, which is always good for consumers.

The Samsung Access, aside from being really ugly, sports a ho-hum 1.3 megapixel camera, bluetooth, and well, that looks to be about it. It’s nice to see that the carriers realize they need to make it really cheap for subscribers to get addicted…er…introduced to these new add-on features, and hopefully we’ll see more entry-level handsets that sport higher-level features. Hopefully the monthly fee won’t be too bad, either, as that seems to be one of the issues plagueing Mobile TV elsewhere.

Verizon Wireless already has a pretty robust offering of digital TV in their V CAST programming, but they’re still adding more. They’ve added content from the Sundance Channel, Break.com, TOKYOPOP’s Manga Video and Anime, and Barclays Premier League Games.

The content from the Sundance Channel will consist of daily updates from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, as well as clips from previous years’ festivals. Break.com features male-oriented videos in short-form such as slapstick humor and other short videos and will make all of their content available to V CAST customers. TOKYOPOP is one of the biggest publishers of manga and anime programing, with the first ever publishing program for North America. They’ll be bringing Programming such as Bizenghast, Rave Master, and PiNMeN to Verizon’s channel lineup. Fox Soccer Channel is the last new recruit, bringing England’s Barclays Premier League coverage live to Verizon’s V CAST service. There will be more than 35 new clips per week, with in-game coverage and other updates on the soccer league.

Verizon has most certainly set the bar high for Mobile TV content in the United States. With AT&T set to launch its own MediaFLO-powered Mobile TV service later this year, I’m anxious to see how the landscape looks this coming Christmas.

Though not currently available just yet, this is by far one of the coolest things I’ve seen headed for cellphones in a long time. At the Consumer Electronics Show, Texas Instruments is demoing a cellphone with a projector built-in. They call it the Pico Projector, and they’re working on plans to actually build the technology right into your cellphone. This is similar to what Microvision is working on, only actually INSIDE the cellphone.

Here’s a quick video demo, and it’s actually not as bad as you’d think. Depending on the obvious lighting conditions and screen quality, this is some really cool technology, and would have uses such as mobile gaming (especially with a bluetooth gamepad) or simply sharing your photos and videos with the family after a long trip. Technology such as this could also provide a boon to the budding Mobile TV market, as well.

David Lynch, he of Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive and the Elephant Man, is not that impressed with films on mobile phones…

Check out this video I came across on Google…

Rajshri Media, India’s biggest broadband entertainment destination, has announced that they will be launching a mobile soap opera in mid-January. The comedic show will air with a full 90 episodes, each one roughly 3 minutes long and will be targeted towards mobile phone users, as well as personal media players.

WIth India one of the fastest growing mobile marketplaces in the world, this will either be a smashing success, destined to be copied by Hollywood and others, or it will completely bomb, leaving a nasty stain on the mobile entertainment business. Time will tell. Given the history of Rajshri Media, I’d assume they’ve done some research and are pretty certain this will hit big.

If you’re in India and get a chance to check these out, please drop us a note with some feedback and experiences.

Dan Ilett, Mr Greenbang, was in town last week. I went along with him to a visit of the Aston Martin of electric cars, Tesla Motors. 0-60 in four seconds. And it’s electric. Completely carbon neutral. Plus you can, if you’d like to get entirely fuel-neutral, you can charge it from a solar panel. Very swish.

I filmed the whole thing on my trusty Nokia N95. Fantastic. I do go on about Nokia at times however the N95’s video is still simply extraordinary. Point, click, upload, super quality, done.

Link: Film: Greenbang visits Tesla factory

Tesla cars not only look good, but can get from 0-60mph in four seconds, have a range of 220 miles and take three hours to charge at home.

That’s not bad, but they’re not ready to go on sale yet. The company reckons next year, but they’ve still got a couple of things on the transmission to work on…

Two things you should know - we weren’t allowed to drive one because all the prototypes were being fixed. And we weren’t allowed to film too much of the battery technology.

Visit the link above if you’d like to check out the video tour (which sometimes features my arm, together with occasional marveling sounds and lots of wicked looking cars).

Ah, the day of mobile video ubiquity is almost upon us.

You can’t even tie up a student with an electricity cable, allegedly humiliate him in front of his peers and taunt him a few times without the footage being transmitted around the globe and (one imagines) Youtubed before you can say the phrase ‘BEG FOR MERCY’.

Have a read…

Link: Academy teachers suspended for tying up pupil in class | Schools special reports | EducationGuardian.co.uk

Two teachers have been suspended after mobile phone footage showed a 16-year-old pupil being tied up with electrical tape and taunted in front of his classmates at a new academy in Kent.

Police and social services have investigated at Folkestone Academy and parents have been told of the incident in a letter from the headteacher of the school that condemns the incident and describes it as a “prank” that went wrong.

The film of the incident on November 28 shows the sixth-form pupil lying face down with his hands tied behind his back. He is surrounded by other pupils and a male teacher is crouched in front of him.

At one point in the five-minute clip a voice, believed to be a teacher’s, says: “Give us a shout when you are ready to start grovelling.” It ends with the pupil being released by another teacher. The boy was reportedly distressed.

I would imagine he was distressed. Unless he was filmed laughing away in a jovial nature, I reckon it’s fairly safe to assume he was distressed.
A source, an unnamed source, reckoned this, according to The Guardian:

“It was like something you would expect in Guantánamo Bay or an al-Qaida video - not in a school. The school has made a lot of noise about being tough on bullies and raising standards, and this kind of thing just makes a mockery of that.

Apparently the students at the school have to sign a 53 page set of pledges related to behaviour - a contract of behaviour or something like that. I wonder if there’s a page covering the use of mobile handsets in class?

Strange, strange. Couldn’t find the video on Youtube…

Word on the street is that AT&T Wireless will launch their MediaFLO-powered mobile TV service in the States ‘as early as possible’ in 2008. Launching with 8 channels - ESPN, MTV, NBC, CBS, and Fox among them, the service has apparently been testing really well. A slight delay is necessary to optimize the user experience, according to Mark Siegel, AT&T Executive Director of Media Relations.

Verizon Wireless currently offers a MediaFLO-powered mobile TV service in the U.S. for $13-25/month on top of regular mobile charges. MediaFLO is owned by Qualcomm, which presents an interesting challenge for Nokia. Nokia already has significant issues getting a handset launched on AT&T’s shelves. They also pioneered the DVB-H standard in Europe, and obviously hoped that the US market would also adopt DVB-H, instead of Qualcomm’s MediaFLO. If Nokia wants to launch a mobile-TV-compatible handset on AT&T now, they will have to license the necessary chip from Qualcomm, something which Nokia is also not particularly fond of.

Once the two largest carriers in the United States offer a mobile TV product, will we finally see any significant uptake with consumers, or will the pricing drive them away?

Verizon Wireless has teamed up with the NCAA to be able to offer full coverage of the 2008 college bowl games to subscribers of their MediaFLO-powered VCAST Mobile TV service. Starting with the Poinsetta Bowl on December 20th and going through to the GMAC Bowl on January 6th, Verizon VCAST Mobile TV customers can tune in to ESPN, CBS, or FOX Mobile TV to get live, full coverage directly on their handsets.

Personally, I don’t really see the draw of watching a sporting event on your mobile phone. I can understand movies and whatnot, as they typically involve close ups and that sort of thing. I can only imagine trying to figure out the score on a 2.4″ QVGA screen. I’ve also not actually used VCAST Mobile TV, so there’s a big chance that they’ve thought of that and developed some way to overcome.

Mobile digital TV is something that has been coming for a long time, and never really got much of a following, at least not as much as industry analysts had hoped. Deals like this, bringing high-demand programming to the mobile handset is certainly exciting and will hopefully drum up more excitement and use.

Back in August I reviewed 3’s X-Series tariffs , the ‘unlimited data’ add-on for contract customers bundled with a range of applications , and rather liked them.

However, I wasn’t able to test the Slingplayer Mobile application and was dubious about its value a part of the more expensive Gold tariff. This option, costing double the basic price at £10 per month in the UK, allowed unlimited streaming of media to an X-Series handset from a PC (via the Orb software package) or from a Slingbox ‘place-shifting’ device. Well, the nice folks from Parys Communications sorted us out with one to borrow and now I’m eating some humble pie…

For those not in the know, a Slingbox is a small electronic box of tricks shaped similar to a bar of gold (or so I believe from watching the ‘Italian Job’). It contains both an analogue and a Freeview (DVB-T) tuner, but can also be connected to a set-top box (for cable or satellite TV). It then connects to your broadband service and allows streaming of whatever is being watched or any channel from its internal tuners to PCs, PDAs and now Symbian phones so you can watch them away from home (hence ‘place-shifting’).

Usefully the Slingbox also provides an infrared transmitter that knows how to control most popular set-top boxes, DVD players and the like so channels can be changed, menus can be operated and recordings started and stopped remotely too. 3 were the first network in the world to introduce the Symbian client coupled with unlimited streaming over 3G and it wasn’t until almost a year later in October this year that Sling made the client generally available.

Setting up the Slingbox is easy, even with the spaghetti of cables under my TV the instructions had me hooking it up to my Sky box in 5 minutes with all the various cables needed included. An annoyance I hadn’t anticipated was that the Slingbox requires a wired connection to your broadband router so I had to move that closer to my TV (Homeplug-type devices can work around this - Sling even sell their own), but otherwise it worked straight away.

Once connected to my home network and switched on, I loaded the PC client and configured its network settings. Again this worked first time and I was able to start watching and controlling TV on my PC. Exciting as this was though (read reviews here, here, here for more on its basic features) I wanted TV on my mobile and moved straight on to my N73 handset to download the Slingplayer Mobile application from 3’s portal.

On running the application for the first time I entered the details of the Slingbox I wanted to view (the application can remember several if you have more than one) including a long number and letter sequence that I had written down during the initial PC-based config. Then I hit ‘start’ and held my breath… Around 10 seconds later the client indicated it was connected and starting to stream. Another 20 seconds or so passed and then voila! TV… on my phone. I threw on a hands-free kit to get the best out of the sound and settled in for a play…

I’m not sure what I expected, but the quality was simple amazing. I would have believed it over a WiFi connection, but over 3G streaming from my ropey home broadband? Wow. Although I had the option to switch it off I also left the sound set to highest quality stereo and it was as good as listening to FM radio on the device. I was astounded. Control of my Sky box was slick too… the client received the configuration of the set-top box I had entered on my PC earlier and through a ‘remote control’ menu I was able to access all of the features of my Sky box including the menus – the options appeared to have been customised for my device. Intuitively the mini-joystick on the phone controlled channels and menus as if using my remote control and I selected a couple of buttons I used regularly to add to a shortcut bar.

Showing colleagues at work many wouldn’t believe the video wasn’t being played from a memory card.

However, sat at home or in the office I already had access to TV when I wanted it so I set about testing it properly… on the move. I figured the train was as good a place as any. As a rule, anywhere with a reasonable 3G signal was absolutely fine, but there was nothing doing on 2G. On a 20 minute journey into Waterloo the picture would stutter on 2 or 3 occasions, but even if lost completely it recovered well without intervention after 10 seconds or so. One problem tunnel where only a 2G signal is available routinely caused the connection to fail, but otherwise I was surprised by its reliability. Off public transport and sat in coffee shops or waiting for an appointment the experience was much the same as at home – seamless. The picture was sharp, the sound was stereo and always synchronised with the picture and even text was crisp and clear (if not a bit small).

Although greatly impressed there were a few areas for improvement… The free Slingbox client that 3 gives away presents the image across the width of the phone’s display. This felt like a real waste of screen space as my N73 turned sideways has an almost wide-screen aspect. I eventually solved this by downloading the newer, generally-available client from the Sling website. Although not free (£20) it adds this crucial feature and allows the image to be scaled to fill the screen or displayed fully with letterboxing. However, it is a shame that 3 have not updated their client. Another cause for complaint was the start-up speed of the connection. This varied depending on signal and was a little slower on the move – at it’s slowest (over a minute from clicking ‘start’ to viewing an image) it was frustrating and particularly so if re-connecting after one of the rare disconnections. However, my biggest complaint doesn’t really relate to the Sling product at all… it’s TV.

There’s nothing on. Well, nothing worth watching….

The problem is that I normally only sit down to watch TV when something I want to watch is on. Having mobile TV was great but at 8am on the train into work all I could watch was painful breakfast TV… It was at this point that it dawned on me why so much attention to detail had been put into the remote control features. A Slingbox really is at its best paired with a DVR such as a Sky+ box. I went home, re-wired and configured the Slingbox to work with my hard-disk recorder (no Sky+ in my flat!) and bingo… telly nirvana. With the ability to watch shows I wanted from disk, to pause them when I was interrupted and rewind TV if the signal dropped the Slingbox was complete. Rather than being something to idly fill the time, I looked forward to commuting to catch up with the previous night’s Sopranos. On other occasions I’d watch live TV on the train home, pause it at the station and finish the program on the TV once I arrived. ‘Showing off’ my girlfriend called it, but she always says that when she’s impressed…
So would I recommend a Slingbox and Slingplayer Mobile? Absolutely I would – particularly if you’re a regular traveller. But there’s another factor to consider too… the price. Although not making much effort to publicise it, 3 offer a free Slingbox to Gold tariff subscribers. These normally cost about £95 from internet retailers, but if you intend to subscribe to Silver tariff anyway upgrading to Gold for an 18 month contract will only cost an additional £90. That’s pretty good value for a Slingbox and unlimited media streaming in my book.

Update: Since I started this review Sling have released 2 new products in the UK – primarily adding High Definition features. The original model is now referred to as the ‘classic’ but continues to be available for sale and free from 3. Although I haven’t tested them, reports indicate the new models are compatible with the Symbian client, but that there is no noticeable improvement in quality of mobile experience – that requires a PC or Mac client.

Today ROK Entertainment Group announced that they have acquired a majority interest in Rock, a performance notebook manufacturer. You should be familiar with ROK Entertainment Group, as they’ve been growing incredibly fast, with FLM, Reeltime, ROK Talk, and now this announcement.

As part of the agreement, ROK and Rock will be joining forces to share knowledge of mobility solutions in entertainment and mobile internet, as well as place-shifting and IPTV. The companies see a lot in common between mobile handset and PC technologies in terms of mobility, and this acquisition will fit nicely into ROK’s strategy of expanding into all arenas of mobile communication, as well as offering yet another platform for delivery.

Here’s the full recap:

ROK Entertainment Group (OTCBB: CYFD), the UK-based mobile technologies, applications and entertainment development company today announces it has acquired a 51% controlling interest in Rock, a performance notebook manufacturer (subsidiary of Eikon Group Limited)…

…Laurence Alexander, CEO of ROK explained, full-scale convergence of the notebook and mobile technologies - and how we use them both - has already begun. Three years ago, virtually no-one browsed the web on their mobile or received and sent emails. In three years time, people will be using their mobile in very similar ways to how they are using their laptops at present. It’s all about technological convergence of the mobile with the internet to deliver total.

Rock are world-leaders in notebook technology innovation, such as being first to launch the worlds fastest graphics for the notebook platform, 8800M GTX by NVIDIA. Earlier this year, they made their first steps into Europe by offering 3 years pan-European warranty on all notebook products with a long term plan to hit the US by 2010, where ROK already operates.

Nick Boardman, CEO of Rock, concluded Rocks customer base consists largely of early adopters, and make the ideal target for ROKs products and services. We will work extremely closely to bring some exciting technology to the market.

ROK, the UK based mobile technology company, has recently acquired Fun Little Movies (FLM) to jointly offer made-for-mobile video content to carriers around the world. Today, Reeltime.com, an internet television network, has announced an agreement with FLM and ROK to allow them to distribute ReelTime’s programs and content to its network of partners.

ROK has distribution deals with several US carriers such as Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T, as well as international carriers in China, Japan, Europe, Africa, and South America. ROK is also available directly to consumers on Nokia’s Eseries handsets through the Nokia Download! application.

ReelTime.com is in the process of rolling out high-resolution video streaming, and is excited to be able to offer FLM’s video ’shorts’ in addition to their library of feature films. FLM and ROK are also excited to be able to offer ReelTime.com’s library to their partners.

Sounds like a win-win situation, though I’m not entirely sold on watching feature films on my handset, at least while they’re streamed and not locally stored.

They’re not resting with their billion dollar valuation at ROK. Oh no. That was last week. This week they’re continuing their ferocious pace of growth with the acquisition of mobile content company Funny Little Movies.

Here’s the gossip:

ROK Entertainment Group (OTC BB: CYFD), the UK-based mobile technologies, applications and entertainment development company today announced it has acquired a 51% controlling interest in Los Angeles-based Fun Little Movies (FLM) for a combination of cash and shares in the company.

Under the terms of the agreement, ROK and FLM will jointly offer made-for-mobile content, such as comedy short films, to network operators worldwide.

FLM specializes in the development, production and distribution of original mobile-oriented comedy for global distribution. In its nomination for Best Video Producer at the 2007 ME Awards, Mobile Entertainment Magazine said FLM “pioneered the advertiser-funded concept” for mobile video.

“ROK’s management team gets it. They see the same potential for the mobile space that we do,” said Frank Chindamo, FLM’s President and Chief Creative Officer. We are excited about the new synergies created by joining with a company that understands ‘synergy’ the way we do.”

I met with Hewlett-Packard this evening in Pimlico to talk mobile video.

I was quite surprised to get an invitation from HP as they aren’t necessarily the first company that comes to mind when I hear the phrase ‘mobile video’.

Roger Fawcett, Director, Business Development for HP’s Communications, Media & Entertainment EMEA section, hosted a dinner for bloggers specifically interested in mobile video (Dean Bubley and Simon Judge as well as me representing SMS Text News).

Also from HP: Gavin Duckett (Industry Consultant Communications, Media and Entertainment) and Jean-Marie Bulte (Solutions Architect Opencall Media Solutions).

By way of introduction Roger began a rough breakdown of HP’s annual revenue: $91 billion. I think this was from 2006, I’ll need to check. Very roughly speaking, the revenue breakdown is thus:

- 40% hardware (servers, printers, devices)
- 40% services (business support, professional services)
- 20% software

Out of this 91 billion pie, roughly 8.5 billion comes from the CME division - that is, Communications, Media & Entertainment.

Factor that down again and HP’s CME Europe activities are about $4 billion.

Look closer and a significant amount of that $4 billion comes from just 11 European based companies. Think Vodafone, Deutsche Telecom, British Telecom.

Now consider that 70% of text messages around the world are going through HP servers (via the likes of messaging giants, Acision or via operators themselves) and one quickly recognises that HP have a direct interest in the mobile industry. That’s before you think about their device division making the uber popular (yet, I think, a bit tooooo fat looking) iPAQ Windows Mobile devices.

did you know that every 911 emergency service for CDMA carriers in North America run on HP? Or that more than 220 million people at 35 mobile operators on five continents depend on HP mobility management solutions? Or that 100 million+ subscribers depend on HP’s mobile prepaid wireless solutions? Not me. I had an inkling.

So this evening was all about Roger and his colleagues introducing what they’ve been cooking up there at HP. And I’m pleased they did. I had no idea. No idea at all.

Did you know, for example, that HP have created a wickedly smart mobile video social media service that was tested by BBC Sport last year? The concept: Make a video call to the BBC, record your Football-related-rant and bish, bash, bosh, the resulting mobile video is whacked straight over to the gallery producers for broadcast. Direct from your mobile. Yes, this, from HP. The people who make printers!

No whilst I’ve seen similar technology implemented before (I’m thinking betting-by-mobile-TV and the likes of Springdoo’s Video Blogging Service), some of the services that Roger and his colleagues demonstrated would, I reckon, be eaten up by many of the startups and social media companies around the world.

Jean-Marie, the nominated Demo Chap for the evening, showed off a platform that allowed you to make a video call to a shortcode, record a video and then publish it in seconds to Youtube. I mean seconds. No arsing around. No delays. I had to sit back and think, ‘HP? Mobile video? Gosh’.

This, from the people who put the ‘grade’ in Carrier Grade.

Jean-Marie then got out three video capable handsets and handed one to each of us.

“Call that number on the slide,” he instructed. Sitting next to Simon, we called in. Within moments we were in a four-way SIP-enabled video call, Dean, Simon and I — with Jean-Marie officiating via a laptop video conferencing system. Nice. Moments later Jean-Marie was demonstrating a real time video RSS service that, when you video-call in to record a video, updates near instantly with your latest content. The commercial possibilities of these sorts of services: Massive if pitched right.

Not entirely new services per se. But the big issue here, however, is scale. Can a developer who’s just knocked up a video call recording service confidently assert that his service will scale from 20 users to 20 million? Hmm. Talk to HP. What’s fascinating is I really didn’t know HP did this sort of thing.

If you’re Youtube and you’re thinking of enabling millions of people to be able to contribute video content live and directly via their video-calling-capable handset, who do you talk to? Or if you’re micro-video-blogging service Hictu hunting for a high capacity, reliable service priced at ‘growing startup rates’? I’m sure HP would be flexible.

Ostensibly the services HP were demonstrating are aimed at mobile operators who would do well to look closely at HP’s offerings although you can effectively pop over to HP in Bracknell with your order forms right now if you’re hunting for scalable mobile video services.

For those interested, I’m going to see if I can get hold of the slides from this evening and publish them. HP definitely aren’t just printers!

ROK Entertainment, everyone’s favourite mobile innovator, have hit the big time. They’ve been going from strength to strength over the past year and after raising a whopping amount of finance earlier.

It is, I’m sure, smiles all round at ROK Towers in Wolverhampton.

I’ve decided to publish the release in full as I’ve been following ROK since they were a glint in Bruce Renny’s eye. I remember when they hired Laurence. I remember when they launched mobile TV shows on memory cards that you could put into your mobile and view. I remember when they launched mobile comics. I was front of the queue to check out their latest Roktalk mobile conferencing service.

Here’s the news:

Wolverhampton, England 15 November 2007: ROK Entertainment Group Ltd. announced today the completion of its share exchange transaction with Cyberfund, Inc., a US public company (OTC BB:CYFD). The combined company will operate initially under the name of Cyberfund and will continue to be listed on the NASD’s Over-the-Counter (OTC) Bulletin Board under the trading symbol, CYFD. On listing, the Company will have a total of 49,956,161 common shares outstanding.

Currently, ROK operates under the Companies Law of England and Wales. It is the intention of Cyberfund to reincorporate in the state of Delaware and change its corporate name to ROK Entertainment Group, Inc., upon necessary stockholder approval. In connection with the name change, the Company will also obtain a new ticker symbol for quotation on the OTC Bulletin Board.

In the transaction, Cyberfund acquired substantially all of the outstanding ordinary shares of ROK through a share exchange. In the share exchange, substantially all of the shareholders of ROK tendered their shares of ROK in exchange for shares of the publicly-traded Cyberfund. In consideration of the shares of ROK, Cyberfund issued shares of its common stock to the shareholders of ROK, representing approximately 92% of its outstanding shares. As a result of the share exchange, Cyberfund owns substantially all of the outstanding shares of ROK, and ROK will be a subsidiary of Cyberfund and continue the existing operations of ROK as a publicly-traded company.

Following the share exchange, ROK’s existing management assumed their same positions with the publicly-traded company.

Commenting on the transaction, Laurence Alexander, Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are delighted to complete this transaction which creates a dynamic new force in the global mobile entertainment industry. We believe the demand for mobile content is set to grow exponentially over the next decade. As an enlarged Group with access to public markets and a proven management team, ROK is well placed to exploit these trends for delivering shareholder value.”

It is the intention of the Board to carry on ROK’s business as the Company’s sole line of business. ROK was founded in May 2004 with the intention to design and develop the technology required to deliver audio-visual content to mobile phones. The Company has offices in the United Kingdom, the United States and the People’s Republic of China, as well as joint ventures in Russia and Brazil.

“I am hugely proud of our achievements to date,” added Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman of ROK, “as it’s taken a massive amount of effort, initiative and perseverance by all our staff to have reached where we are today.”

According to Wireless Intelligence, a collaboration between Ovum, a market research company, and the GSM Association, an industry body, the size of the worldwide market of mobile phone users reached 2.5 billion subscribers worldwide in September 2006, and is expected to exceed 3 billion subscribers by 2008. The Company’s products and services are targeted to this large and growing mobile phone user market.

ROK currently has 3 registered patents and 42 additional patent applications pending for new technologies which it has developed for the delivery of video entertainment to mobile phones. The technologies facilitate delivery of services, including, on-demand mobile TV streamed over mass-market 2.5G via GPRS, the storage of copy-protected movies stored on memory cards for play on mobile phones, Java, SMS and P2P games, place-shifting to mobile devices and VoIP mobile calling.

It is the Company’s plan to continue the roll-out of its products worldwide and maintain its investment in research and development to improve current products, and increase compatibility and user features, as well as work on new technologies and products.

A focus on technology exposes the business to risks of technological change and the Company is now actively acquiring, creating and aggregating content and services to deliver across the rapidly expanding network of content distribution.

The Company has a number of operational deployments as of the end of October 2007, including ROK TV with AIS (Thailand), Telenor (Pakistan), BSNL (India), Avea (Turkey) and Vodacom (South Africa), as well as ROK’s mobile TV service marketed direct-to-consumers. ROK Media has deployed a variety of innovative mobile entertainment applications to include ANSA, ROK Comics and Fonepark in the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Pakistan and Russia.

ROK New Net in China is providing lottery services and selling lottery tickets for the Beijing Welfare Lottery, as well as a number of other mobile value-added telecommunications service operators (VAS).

Before the end of the second quarter of 2008, ROK aims to achieve a significant global reach in mobile television (FreeBe TV and ROK TV), as well as expand the Company’s product portfolio and breadth of commercial deployment of these services (through cross-sales of products and services), through ROK’s existing and growing partner distribution network which includes Mobile Operating companies and handset manufacturers.

More information is available at www.rokcorp.com.

The securities sold by Cyberfund in the share exchange transaction have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and may not be sold in the United States absent registration pursuant to the Securities Act or an exemption therefrom. Cyberfund expects to file a current report on Form 8-K shortly with more complete information about its business, operations and financial condition.

Advising ROK on the share exchange transaction was Greenberg Traurig, LLP, as U.S. legal counsel.

Forward looking statement:

The information contained in this new release, other than historical information, consists of forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these statements. Forward-looking statements regarding the timing of developing, testing and releasing existing and new products, of marketing and selling them, of deriving revenues and profits from them, as well as the effects of those revenues and profits on the company’s margins and financial position, are uncertain because many of the factors affecting the timing of those items are beyond the company’s control.

Congratulations all at ROK!

ROK Entertainment Group, the UK-based specialist mobile applications developer, has launched its first streamed mobile TV deployment in India through local operator BSNL.

Offering an initial portfolio of 6 channels to include English Music Channel (EMN), Hindi music channel (Geet), an entertainment channel (Bindaas), a Bollywood channel (Zoom), a live Hindi news channel plus a Regional Offering for each Zone from ETV networks for a monthly fee of INR 150 (approximately £1.90), the BSNL Mobile TV service is called “Tiny TV”.

“We’re delighted to be working with BSNL on the delivery of mass-market mobile TV in India” said Laurence Alexander, CEO of ROK “as we all recognise India to be such a dynamic and fast-growing mobile market.”

ROK TV technologies allow video to stream to mobiles at up to 14 frames per second over 2.5G via GPRS and up to 24 frames per second over 3G and Wi-Fi.

“BSNL, with more than 28 million subscribers in India, represents another major step forward in our global deployment of streamed mobile TV ” added Alexander.

ROK is in the midst of deploying 30 white-label versions of its streamed mobile TV service worldwide and, in May this year, agreed to be acquired by US publicly-listed company CyberFund (OTC: CYFD) in a Share Exchange Agreement.

Link: SourceWire | Press Releases - iO global to Launch Trial of Three-Screen Marketing Practices

iOâ„¢ global, the innovative worldwide provider of integrated digital retail solutions, is launching a three-screen trial to measure the effectiveness of integrated mobile-TV-PC marketing practices. For the first time, publishers, advertisers and agencies and a digital retail solutions company are joining forces to establish a framework for demonstrating ROI on three-screen marketing initiatives.

iO global is partnering with several major media companies and advertisers to deliver branded content to a sample of consumers. The trial will kick-off in January, 2008. Participating publishers and advertising agencies will have access to behavioural and purchasing data, as well as brand health measurements collected during the trial.

I think this will yield som fascinating results. More from iO Global here.

Via the always interesting ‘Your personalised Monthly email from Orange’, I read about MobileAct (mobileact.co.uk).

The operators here in the UK are falling over themselves to ally their brands with music. If my memory serves, Vodafone, T-Mobile and o2, as well as Orange, have all got some sort of TV-show tie in related to live music. Nearly all of the resultant TV shows are either on Channel4 (also showing MobileAct) or ITV.

MobileAct appears to be a ‘proper’ produced show — that is, it’s not some limpwristed half hearted attempt at a battle-of-the-bands. The show’s traveling across the UK to check out the finalists, in much the same way as X-Factor or American Idol — plus it features an array of well known UK (and pretty credible) personalities as judges.

How has it been mobilised? Well MobileAct has it’s own wap site (wap.mobileact.co.uk) and Mobisodes are published every Monday, along with updated site content on Fridays.

Disappointingly, if you’d like to get the link sent to your mobile, it’ll cost you about 35 pence. (i.e. 25p premium rate text then the cost of a standard network rate). Why this couldn’t have been made free, I don’t know.

There’s a good array of video content on the MobileAct site, however it’s been built by a total arse. Someone who doesn’t quite recognise the power of social media. Or someone who’s been sat under a rock for a few years. I was going to embed a video here on this post to give you an idea of the quality of the show. Unfortunately it’s all proprietary. You want to watch a vid? Well you can, via flash, but you HAVE to visit their site. Which, I’m willing to bet, no SMS Text News reader will really be bothered to do. But a few might have clicked an embeded video to have a look.

The show is also part sponsored by Sony Ericsson. Cool concept.

Hmm, I wonder…

Link: SourceWire | Press Releases - Juniper Research expects spectrum scarcity to block mobile TV launch in UK until at least 2010

The number of mobile broadcast TV subscribers in Western Europe is expected to pass 20m by 2011, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

However, following the exit of the BT/Virgin Mobile DAB-IP offering from the market, the UK is not expected to relaunch mobile broadcast TV services until 2010 at the very earliest, well behind most of its European neighbours.

Fans of the international, award winning, cult sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf, will soon be able to watch exclusively created ‘mobisodes’ of the show on their mobile phone via Pitch, the international mobile entertainment company. Animated episodes made up from classic moments in the show, which has just been named ‘Top Science Fiction and Fantasy Show of all time’ by the Radio Times, will be available from 11th October on a weekly basis.

Charles Armitage at Red Dwarf said: “Pitch Entertainment has created amazing, ground breaking technology that gives our fans the chance to access and enjoy Red Dwarf whilst on the move. The weekly animated ‘mobisodes’, the social networking functionality and the exclusive content will enhance the Red Dwarf experience for everyone.”

Pitch is available to mobile users in thirteen territories, as far-flung as Malaysia and Singapore, as well as across Europe with plans to launch a new territory every month over the next year. Red Dwarf is now approaching its 20th anniversary as an international success story, seen in over 35 countries, with DVD sales approaching 4 million units.

Martin Bowley chief executive at Pitch, said: “Red Dwarf is iconic with millions of die-hard fans across the world. Combining such comic genius with the latest in mobile entertainment technology creates an exciting and dynamic environment that will move the cult of Red Dwarf into another dimension. Established fans can access new episodes, interact with each other and share their passions for Red Dwarf, whilst a new generation of fans will also be able to discover Red Dwarf for the first time. This is the future of entertainment.”

For just £3 a week, subscribers will receive a brand new Red Dwarf animated ‘mobisode’ and access to a virtual social network allowing them to utilise all the functionality of social networking whilst on the move. Fans can chat, upload and rate their pictures & videos. Subscribers can also choose 6 enhanced mobile features for their phone each week as part of the Red Dwarf service including specially created Red Dwarf ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers and videos.

Subscribers can receive the brand new Red Dwarf ‘mobisode’ each week by visiting www.red-dwarf.mobi or text RD1 to 87000

Nokia’s new partnerships with world-leading content brands brings a huge range of high-quality mobile videos into the hands of compatible Nokia Nseries device owners. The new partners announced today are to join YouTube and Reuters in providing mobile video content for the Nokia Video Center.
The Nokia Video Center offers Nokia Nseries users one simple place to discover and access the best choice of mobile video content via 3G, WiFi or PC. Users can switch easily between a range of different video services choosing from branded on-demand video, internet video podcasts and their own favorite videos. The Nokia Video Center is available on the Nokia N95 and Nokia N95 8GB.
New partners and their services:
CNN - Provides comprehensive international news coverage, as well as business, sports and entertainment updates from around the world.(i)
IBN News - Download the latest news and features to your phone from the leading English news channel in India.(ii)
Jamba - offers free videos from three categories, music videos, cartoons and fun.
Sony Pictures - Inside Sony Pictures is your free all-access pass to trailers and added value content for current and upcoming movies, TV, games and more from Sony Pictures Entertainment.
RooftopComedy - Stand-up and sketch comedy clips from around the world.
ROK, FreeBeTV - Celebrity TV, Sports, Classic Commercials and Fun Little Movies.
Versaly Entertainment, FAST LANE - The premier mobile video channel for the male lifestyle: through its video business unit Vmbc.tv, programming includes intense action sports, hilarious comedy, full contact fighting, the best mobile user-generated content, and much more!
“The new partnerships expand the scope of quality mobile videos available to Nseries device owners. The new content ranges from movies, trailers and comedy to more informative videos such as international news.” said Harri Mannisto, Director, Multimedia, Nokia. “Consumer desire to watch internet videos on mobile devices is growing all the time and we want to help users discover and access the best content in the simplest way possible.”
CNN(i), IBN(ii), Jamba and Sony Pictures will join YouTube and Reuters and will appear in the main menu of the Nokia Video Center. RooftopComedy, ROK and Versaly Entertainment will be found in the Internet Videos category of the menu.
(i) The service is currently available in APAC region.
(ii) The service is available in APAC region only.