ROK - the emperor's new clothes?

Link: Mobile Marketing Magazine: Is this the Ultimate Mobile TV Service?.

Mobile technology company ROK Entertainment has revealed plans to launch a set-top box that will relay TV programmes from a consumer’s living room to their mobile phone, with no additional subscription cost involved.

David at Mobile Marketing Magazine isn’t wrong.  If ROK can deliver what they’re apparently promising, it could well be the ultimate mobile TV service.  I would  definitely sign up.  Sat on the train this evening I’d have been delighted to catch up on the Daily Show episodes sat on my Sky+ box.

However, i can’t find an answer to this issue: DATA CHARGES.

The ROK site advises that on the 2.5g demo, 1 meg of data usage will deliver roughly 4 minutes of TV.  (I think I’ve got that accurate).

Now, I looked into the FAQ and found that for the main service you are also responsible for your data charges.

There is absolutely no way I will pay £2.35 to watch four minutes of mobile TV on top of the ROK monthly subscription.

What am I missing?

Is the only solution to become a Vodafone 3g card owner (as I am) with an ‘unlimited’ (read: 1-2 gig a month before they get shirty) allowance and then use the sim card in your mobile to watch TV?

I remember three years ago being astounded that I could get Radio through my o2 XDA via GPRS.  Then I found out I’d used my entire monthly data allowance on 10 minutes of listening.

I was hoping to read that ROK had done some super dooper deal with the four main operators to wave data charges for any ROK users… or something like this. 

So if I’m a Lost fan and I want to watch one 45 minute episode a week at an industry standard(ish) data cost of £2.35 per 4 minutes, that’s going to cost me £26 a week or £105 for the month.  Plus the ROK subscription.  No deal….!

I hope I really am missing something, I really would like to try it out.