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.

I’ve been meaning to write a bit about these guys before - but what with other recent high profile mobile related events it’s been a bit busy around these parts.

Anyway, let me introduce Skill-Pill Mobile Learning. The concept is quite simple - they give you two minute-long ‘pep talks’ on a selection of business topics via mobile video. Whether you’ve got an important presentation to do, need to jog your memory on a particular subject or are about to head into a sales meeting and need a quick injection of knowledge on a new subject, you just grab the relevent Skill-Pill, push the button and watch the video on your mobile.

The service claims to run on any video-enabled mobile, including most smartphones, Blackberrys, PDA, plus the iPod and iPhone as well if that tickles your fancy. I’ve had a play around with Skill-Pill on my Nokia E61 and N95, and it works a treat.

They do personal and corporate packages, and plenty of topics too - so there’s sure to be something of interest. Go have a look and find out more at http://www.skill-pill.com

‘A single point of transcoding’ — That’s the Vantrix saying and I think that does make quite a lot of sense. Do take a look at them if you’re at all interested in video transcoding and mobile.

Link: Mobile Video Company Vantrix Takes $12 Million Series B

Vantrix offers a mobile focused rich media delivery platform; or in laymen’s terms it provides delivery tools that allow video to be easily viewed on cellphones.

MXit, the hugely successful mobile messaging service with over 5 million users worldwide, has launched MOBmix — a service providing downloadable audio and video broadcasts delivered to your cellphone at a fraction of a cost of a regular broadcasting, sales or screening. Each content download is priced from 50 Moola (that’s MXit money — i.e. 50 South African cents, I think) for Ringtones, up to 400 Moola (4 SA rand) for music videos and full length tracks.

The service includes;

- Hour-long chat and chart shows featuring presenters like Derek The Bandit or DJ Cleo.
- 20-minute TV segments on lifestyle, new movies and new music [unlike podcasts – a PC or internet access is not required]
- 60-minute radio-casts with top name presenters – new album releases include Infinity on High by Fall Out Boys
- Video casts include EPKs – electronic press kits: multi-media shorts about new bands, footage on upcoming movies, hot gossip etc.
- Feedback, voting and competition mechanic is part of the Mobmix feature
- Universal Music, Musica and Puma are service partners
- Launch package includes mobcasts by Derek The Bandit, hip hop show Studio Dogz & Koni Mazwai, the ZA Show hosted by Glen and Bridgette Verran

I’ve never heard of Glen or Bridgette myself — but keep in mind MXit has a massive, massive South African following who, I’m sure, all know of the ZA Show.

I wonder how MOBmix will perform? I’m willing to bet that it’ll be immediately popular with the MXit user base.

Just in case you’re up for a MXit refresher:

MXit Facts
- MXit is a free mobile instant messaging solution
- The service provides low cost text based communication to mobile users
- 5 million users are currently registered with MXit with the company receiving between 9 - 12 thousand new registrations per day
- 200 – 500 million messages are sent per day
- The application is downloaded to the user’s cell phone free of charge via www.mxit.co.za/wap. The user is then able to send and receive short text messages over the Internet at a very low cost, on both cell phones and personal computers.
- Swist Group Technologies (Pty) Ltd was formed in 1995 and is a major shareholder of MXit Lifestyle.
- In April 2004, the business unit of MXit Lifestyle (formerly Clockspeed Mobile) was separated from Swist Group to form a new company.
- Naspers acquired a 30% stake in MXit in January 2007.

And in case you’re up for more info about MOBmix itself, it was developed by Mel.Vent Communications, a The Mothermix Group company.

Mobile TV experts ROK have inked a deal with Pakistan mobile operator, Warid Telecom, to provide streamed mobile TV over Warid’s existing 2.5G network.

Warid Telecom - part owned by Singtel - aim to launch the multi-channel TV offering in a matter of weeks as a subscription-based service.

Commenting on the announcement, Laurence Alexander, CEO of ROK said “We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with Warid as they are a highly innovative and fast-growing mobile operator who quickly realised the massive potential of mobile TV streaming live and on-demand channels over it’s existing network across Pakistan and we are confident of significant up-take of the service when we launch in a matter of weeks.”

ROK is in the midst of a global deployment of it’s streamed mobile TV service to more than 30 mobile operators worldwide and, in May this year announced it had agreed to be acquired by US publcly-listed company CyberFund (OTC: CYFD) in a Share Exchange Agreement.

As part of it’s global deployment, ROK already powers mobile TV services for such companies as Avea in Turkey, AIS in Thailand, Telenor in Pakistan and Vodacom in South Africa - as well as offering it’s service direct to subscribers in conjunction with Nokia Eseries devices across Europe.

ROK and Warid will announce the channel line-up and the subscription cost for the new mobile TV service in October.

“The significant advantages of ROK TV include the fact that live and on-demand TV streamed to mobiles has a much higher perceived value in the eyes of subscribers than linear TV channels broadcast in full to mobiles,” added Alexander ” as well as the fact that through streaming over existing networks there is no need for investment by our partner telcos in new broadcast infrastructure.”

Following on from my post yesterday, there was a rather curiously-timed press announcement today from South African mobile network Vodacom (50% owned by Vodafone) and ROK TV, which indeed confirms that they’ve hooked up to launch a live and on-demand multi-channel mobile TV service, streamed over the 2.5G GPRS network.

The service, called MobileTVPlaya, offers Vodacom customers a choice of 10 channels to receive on their 2.5G cellphone from a content portfolio of 22 channels ― to include national and international live news, sports updates, music videos, cartoons and comedies ― at a monthly cost of SAR29.00 (approximately £3.00).

“MobileTVPlaya’ is an African first,” said Romeo Kumalo, Executive Director, Vodacom South Africa, “and we’re confident of significant uptake amongst our customers who want access to live and on-demand information and entertainment content on their cellphones at any time, any place.”

“We’re delighted to be working with Vodacom in the deployment of streamed mobile TV across South Africa,” said Laurence Alexander, CEO of ROK TV, “and we will be looking into adding increased functionality and interaction to the service, and even more relevant content in future, once we have a clear idea of the genres of channels that prove most popular.”

So, what’s the significance of this? Here’s what I had to say yesterday..

ROK, as we all know, are big in mobile TV. They have a rather nifty service that works fine on 2.5G GPRS phones as well as 3G. In fact, one of their main unique selling points is you don’t have to go 3G for mobile TV.

Vodafone, on the other hand, are big into mobile TV on 3G. “It’s the future”, they cry - and have splashed silly amounts of money on recent advertising campaigns to promote how exciting it is to be able to be one of 12 people to a cell to have the privilege of watching telly on your phone.

Incidently, Vodafone are currently in talks to buy the remaining 50% of Vodacom that they don’t own from Telkom.

Putting two and two together and quite possibly getting five, I get the feeling something interesting is brewing. Knowing how responsive Vodafone’s press office usually is, I decided not to waste a few hours of my life trying to get a statement from them - so I placed a call to ROK’s Marketing Director Bruce Renny, who hasn’t yet called me back, and probably won’t now til tomorrow.

Assuming the answer is five, and a Vodafone joint venture (and, if the deal goes through, a wholy owned subsidary) has ended up with a GPRS-based mobile TV service when the corporate line is “3G TV all the way”, it could be a little embarrasing.

Link: Index : Mobile TV Playa - Vodacom

I stumbled across this page earlier, whilst researching something else. Vodacom - who incidently are 50% owned by Vodafone and 50% by Telkom, appear to have launched a mobile TV service. Nothing unusual? Have a look at the logo for a minute. It looks suspiciously like ROK TV’s logo.

ROK, as we all know, are big in mobile TV. They have a rather nifty service that works fine on 2.5G GPRS phones as well as 3G. In fact, one of their main unique selling points is you don’t have to go 3G for mobile TV.

Vodafone, on the other hand, are big into mobile TV on 3G. “It’s the future”, they cry - and have splashed silly amounts of money on recent advertising campaigns to promote how exciting it is to be able to be one of 12 people to a cell to have the privilege of watching telly on your phone.

Incidently, Vodafone are currently in talks to buy the remaining 50% of Vodacom that they don’t own from Telkom.

Putting two and two together and quite possibly getting five, I get the feeling something interesting is brewing. Knowing how responsive Vodafone’s press office usually is, I decided not to waste a few hours of my life trying to get a statement from them - so I placed a call to ROK’s Marketing Director Bruce Renny, who hasn’t yet called me back, and probably won’t now til tomorrow.

Assuming the answer is five, and a Vodafone joint venture (and, if the deal goes through, a wholy owned subsidary) has ended up with a GPRS-based mobile TV service when the corporate line is “3G TV all the way”, it could be a little embarrasing.

Verizon Wireless customers in North America can now get commercial-free full-length episodes of “The Late Show with David Letterman” and “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”  via the operators V CAST portal, thanks to a deal inked with US broadcast network CBS.

“While we continue to provide short clips of our shows, we’re seeing a growing demand for the availability of full length, network quality shows on video on demand mobile video,” said Cyriac Roeding, executive vice president, CBS Mobile, CBS Interactive. “The ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ and the ‘Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson’ have become some of the most demanded shows in mobile and on the internet so it only makes sense that we fulfill the consumer request and help grow the popularity of these franchises. We are committed to innovation and are happy to help launch Verizon Wireless’ first full-length video on demand programming on its V CAST service.”
The V CAST service is available to Verizon customers on an unlimited monthly basis for $15/month, or on a daily pay-as-you-go on demand cost of $3 for 24 hours usage. Data charges are included, but application download fees apply for some other V CAST services, such as 3D games and premium video.

Link: BBC NEWS | Business | O2 agrees BBC phone content deal
BBC Worldwide (the commercial arm of the BBC) have inked a deal with O2, which will allow the operator to offer clips from popular TV shows including Little Britain and The Office to it’s O2 Active subscribers.

Peter Percier, head of  mobile for BBC Worldwide, says: “O2 is the largest UK operator by subscriber numbers so this is clearly a great deal for us”. He added that BBC Worldwide has “access to some of the best known and most loved TV brands”.

According to reports, O2 customers will initially get access to about 300 pieces of media content, increasing in time.

Avea - the Turkish GSM operator  - has launched their mobile TV service in cooperation with ROK-powered Mobiltürk. 

Employing EDGE technology, Avea Mobile TV contains live and on-demand mobile TV to include news, sports, music videos, copmedies and factual channels.
 
Avea is majority (81%) owned by Türk Telekom, in which Telecom Italia has an indirect stake through Oger Telecom. Founded in 2004, it has around 8 million subscribers, equivalent to a market share of 15%.

According to a ROK TV spokesman, “this is the latest international launch of ROK-powered mobile TV - with more to follow” - so watch this space!

NBC Universal have inked a deal with US mobile network Verizon to bring nine of their channels to the operators V CAST handsets.

Starting today, V CAST customers with select phones can view short video on demand from NBCU’s entire suite of video channels and brands, including NBC News, NBC Sports, NBC Comedy, BravoToGo, NBC Entertainment, Telemundo, mun2 and iVillage.

The service also includes clips from shows such as Heroes, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Office, and Project Runway.

Commenting on the deal, Jean-Briac Perrette, president of NBC Universal Digital Distribution, said: “NBCU continues to be a leader in extending the reach of our brands across mobile devices. Through our expanded partnership with Verizon, consumers can watch an extensive offering of NBCU content where and when they want.”

The V CAST service costs $3 for a 24 hour period, or $15 per month for a subscription package. Data streaming charges are included in the cost, but application download fees apply for 3D games and premium video.

Link: Virgin pulls the plug on mobile video | The Register

Virgin Mobile have announced plans to pull the plug on their mobile TV service early next year. The service, in partnership with BT Movio, was launched in a blaze of publicity featuring ex-Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson. Since then, apparently only 10,000 Lobster 700TV handsets have been sold by January 2007 - which put the future of the service into doubt even then.

Virgin Mobile and BT Movio’s service used DMB technology, which in turn relied on bandwidth on GCap Media’s national DAB digital radio multiplex. Although BT’s contract with GCap runs until 9th June 2008, Virgin have advised that they’ll be canning the service shortly after the end of January 2008.

The news comes just weeks after the European Union chose DVB-H (an adaptation of the existing DVB-T terrestrial digital TV technology) as the standard for mobile TV in its member countries. However this is still a broadcast-based one to many solution - and does not, like the Virgin/BT service, provide video on demand services.

Commenting on the news, Bruce Renny from streaming mobile TV experts ROK TV said: “Expectations for the commercial uptake of full-length broadcast TV on mobiles as subscription services are over-optimistic and the demise of Virgin’s mobile TV service reflects that. After all, why pay a subscription fee to receive the same TV content on your mobile that you already get at home? Particularly when people don’t watch TV on mobiles for more than a few minutes at a time.”

“Most mobile TV viewing is for just a few minutes. To be commercially successful, you have to provide a combination of live news, sports updates and video-on-demand made-for-mobile content which is instantly engaging. Simply broadcasting linear TV to mobiles is not the answer.”

UK-based Mobile TV gurus ROK notched up another first over the weekend - this time for streaming the world’s first live music concert over mass-market 2.5G via GPRS to mobile phones.

The ‘Be My Guest‘ concert was staged on Saturday 14th July at the Bangkok Hall in Thailand and was streamed across a 4 hour period, live and exclusive, to mobile operator AIS’s ROK TV service.

Commenting on the breakthrough, Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman of ROK said “Live events have been streamed over 3G networks before but never over 2.5G via GPRS so we are delighted to have successfully set the tone - and the model - for this brand new mass-market mobile entertainment service, going forward”.

AIS reported a total of more than 15,000 people watched ROK TV on their mobiles on the day of the concert. Interestingly, according to ROK, the concert was staged during a torrential rainstorm in Bangkok which disabled satellite TV for many people, yet their GPRS stream carried on working.

ROK TV today announced a deal with Nokia, which will see the mobile TV company offering a direct to consumer business-orientated mobile TV service to Nokia Eseries device users.

The service, available in the UK now and due for launch into mainland Europe from August onwards, will headline with channels from Bloomberg, CNBC, EuroNews and ITN. 

Commenting on the plans, David King, business development manager, Enterprise Solutions, Nokia said “Nokia Eseries customers tend to be professional people who seek instant information and entertainment, on-demand, so it is a logical and practicle step to offer our customers a business-orientated mobile TV service.”

“We’re absolutely delighted to be working with Nokia on this exciting deployment of mobile TV” said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman of ROK. “As we know there is a huge and as-yet untapped market for live and instantly-available business and financial news amongst mobile TV customers.”

ROK TV  is available via the Downloads! Service on such devices as Nokia E61i and Nokia E65, initially, which the owner simply needs to activate to begin watching the services. Two channel packages will be offered - a 5 channel ‘Strictly Business’ package, to be charged in the UK at £5.00 a month, with a heavy emphasis on business news and information channels such as Bloomberg, CNBC Europe, EuroNews in 9 languages and regional news channels, and a 10 channel ‘ROK All’ TV package, to be charged at £10.00 a month containing all the live business news channels as well as additional sports news, music videos and comedy channels. As a trial, both TV packages will be free to view for the first 2 weeks. 

Mobile entertainment company ROK have just announced they’ve inked a deal with American broadcaster NBC to bring their CNBC Europe channel to mobiles.

“We’re delighted to have CNBC Europe as a flagship channel on ROK TV” said Jonathan kendrick, Chairman of ROK “as we know there is a huge and as-yet untapped demand for live and instantly-available business and financial news amongst our mobile TV customers.”

Commenting on the deal, Martin Kay of CNBC said “ROK TV is a great partner for us to deploy our channel into dozens of mobile operators around the world because of its international reach, and because it is not limited to 3G operaors.”

Link: European Regulators Pick Nokia’s DVB-H Mobile TV Standard — Mobile TV — InformationWeek

According to reports, the European Union has decided to go with the DVB-H standard for mobile TV. This is a bit of a blow for companies backing streaming TV via 3G data - DVB-H is an adaptation of the existing DVB-T terrestrial digital TV standard, which relies on the existing broadcast TV network.

“I know that competition among different standards can, for some time, be a good way to let the market identify the best solution,” EC telecommunications regulator Viviane Reding told an industry conference. “But we have been waiting too long. The opportunities are slipping away. It is time to break the deadlock.”

She added that she favors the DVB-H standard because it’s based on and partially financed by European interests.

The European Commission is due to publish the DVB-H standard in mid-July. Whereas existing services like ROK TV and operator services from Vodafone and Orange rely on TV streaming via IP over 3G, the DVB-H standard is a ‘broadcast’ multicast service - with O2, Nokia and transmission company Arquiva trialing a service in Oxford back in 2005.

Link: Asia to beat Europe in mobile TV - industry execs | Technology, Media & Telecommunications | Reuters.co.uk

Asia is set to overtake Europe’s early lead in adopting mobile television broadcasting as Europe struggles to find available airwaves for broadcasts, industry executives at an Asian trade fair said this week.

“Out of the regions of the world this represents the most interesting at the moment,” Peter MacAvock, executive director of industry body DVB Project, told Reuters in an interview at the BroadcastAsia fair in Singapore.

Interesting news. Here’s the killer quote though:

“Everybody thinks mobile TV is a great idea, but when it’s time to get out the chequebook everyone starts to look at each other,” MacAvock said.

Mobile entertainment and TV specialists ROK have certainly been busy lately - with recent collaborations in Thailand and Pakistan, and today’s announcement that they’ve teamed up with Celcom in Malaysia.

Speaking at the ceremony, Dato’ Sri Shazalli [CEO of Celcom] said, “We have achieved great success with our mobile content services. The move is in line with our position as a powerful multimedia content telecommunications leader in the country. We are excited to have ROK TV as our partner in innovation.”

“Celcom is committed to empower mobile technology users. We are positive that there is a growing demand for quality Mobile TV service and customers can benefit greatly from the convenience of Celcom’s wide network,” concluded Dato’ Sri Shazalli.

Subscribers will be able to view various shows on their mobile phones ranging from breaking news and sports news to cartoon series, rap music and entertainment news. Among the channels available are ABC News Now, Al-Jazeera, ITN, SNTV, Xtreme TV, and Mixcast. 

Link: News Programs are Most Popular Mobile TV Service

Some interesting research, courtesy of Denmark’s largest telco TDC. In the past six months, since they launched their mobile TV service in the country, they have found the biggest attraction is news, news and more news.

During the clearing of the Youth Center, there was a period with four times as many unique users accessing mobile TV as on ordinary days. Similarly, the press conference where Bjarne Riis admitted to doping abuse almost doubled the viewers for the channels showing the news.

There’s some more interesting stats: the average TDC user watches mobile TV for 9-10 minutes a day over an average of 2.7 accesses each day. They’re also a bunch of compulsive channel surfers - the average viewing time per channels is 3.5 minutes.

The research findings were echoed by Bruce Renny, ROK TV’s Marketing Director, who says: “We entirely support these findings. Our experience through operating on-demand mobile TV over 2.5G, 3G and Wi-Fi in 9 countries worldwide is that mobile TV is viewed in short bursts of between 3 and 5 minutes each visit and approximately half of all views of mobile TV are for live news and sports updates. The other half of all views are for music videos and comedy clips and other made-for-mobile content.”

Bruce also said something else, but I’ll come back to that in a later post as it’s quite an interesting statement.

Link: The Nielsen Company :: Nielsen to Measure the Mobile Media Consumer

American research company Nielsen today announced it’ll begin measuring mobile phone users through a new service called Nielsen Wireless. This service will measure how many people use content services such as mobile Internet and mobile video and what impact this has on established media behavior.

“The value of an entertainment medium is directly proportional to how well it is measured,” said Herrmann. “Reliable and accurate measurement of mobile consumers will enable advertisers to properly evaluate the mobile marketing opportunity. This new mobile measurement service demonstrates Nielsen’s continued commitment to follow content wherever consumers take it. Independent measurement of the cross-media behavior of the growing mobile audience will support and accelerate the evolution of mobile media business models.”

Understandable independent metrics are good. They help educate and persuade buyers, strengthens the industry’s offering, and help turn a technology into a saleable item.

The announcement also coincides with the release of some interesting statistics about mobile video usage in the USA.

– At least 7% of 18-34 year-olds viewed mobile video programming in the first quarter of 2007 while at least 25% used their mobile phone to connect to the Internet

  — As of May 31, more than half, 55%, of primary users of video-enabled mobile phones lived in households with total incomes of $75,000 or above.

  — Subscribers to different carriers vary in terms of cable status: people in Sprint households were 30% more likely than people in T-mobile households to have a digital broadcast satellite (DBS) system. People in Verizon Wireless households are 26% more likely to have digital \ cable service in their home (39% of Verizon Wireless household persons had wired digital cable compared to 31% of U.S. Persons 2+).

When you’re preparing for substantial and signficiant investment, or the likes of an IPO, there’s a few things you have to do. Sort out your legals, get your old shareholders in line, make sure everyone’s got their option agreements to hand — and get a decent CEO to take you to the next level.

That’s not to cast a shadow on the outgoing CEO, no, not at all. It’s recognising that zero-to-a-few-million requires a particular set of qualities — a-few-million-to-Millions requires an entirely different set of qualities. For mobile television pioneer ROK, this set of requirements comes in the form of Mobile Titan, Laurence Alexander.

The news release I got through from ROK describes Laurence as a Mobile Heavyweight. Entirely accurate, given his pedigree at o2 and more recently, as CEO of mobile handset manufacturer, Emblaze.

Laurence was the chap who was responsible for bringing Blackberry to the UK via o2. For that, I upgraded his status in my eyes from Mobile Heavyweight to Mobile Titan. Blackberry changed my business lifestyle forever.

A quick ROK refresher:

Formed in 2003, ROK Entertainment Group currently employs 150 staff worldwide and has, to date, been privately financed. ROK has filed more than 40 patent applications for a suite of mobile technologies it has developed ranging from unicast mobile TV streamed over 2.5G, 3G and Wi-Fi networks through to content-loaded memory cards and mobile VoIP and content applications.

ROK is about to do an IPO through a share exchange with US publicly listed company CyberFund, Inc. (CYFD) so on the back of what they’ve already achieved, they’ll be going through the roof shortly.

The obligatory Mobile Titan quote from Laurence:

“I’ve been amazed and impressed at all that Jonathan and the team at ROK has achieved over the past three or four years and I’m delighted to be joining the company at this exciting time” said Alexander. “We’ll be looking to consolidate our position as a world leader in the provision of mobile entertainment services and applications through partnerships with handset manufacturers and mobile operators around the world”.

We’re expecting great things, Laurence No pressure!

Just had a note from Bruce over at ROK TV with some wicked news. They’ve just officially launched the service in Thailand, with local mobile operator AIS.

Since the service soft-launched in February, AIS have already recruited 60,000 subscribers - and now are looking to grow into several hundred thousand within a matter of months.

Great news! Watch this space for more ROK TV countries coming soon..

Had a note from Ben at Sentinel Entertainment about their new horror mini-series. ‘Corpse’, starring Philip Jackson and Oliver Chris, is now available to download to your mobile in eight weekly episodes.

Aging thespian, Harold Brazier (Philip Jackson) is hammier than a gammon sandwich. However, when he’s upstaged by a stand-in he begins to find his character’s true motivation. With the help of a little rat poison, Harold is about to give the performance of his life.. Somewhere between Ealing Studios and Hammer House lies the horribly comic land of CORPSE.

Check out www.corpsethemovie.com to find out more, or click this link to visit the webshop. At only a quid an episode, it’s not that much more expensive than a newspaper and probably far more entertaining for the boring train or tube journey into work.