ROK TV achieves Video-On-Demand over 2.5G GPRS

In another first for SMS Text News, we bought you this story earlier today (see this post). As promised, here’s some more info.

ROK Entertainment Group, UK-based developer of mobile entertainment services and technologies, today announced the provision of the worlds first video-on-demand (VOD) mobile TV service streamed over mass market 2.5G GPRS. The up-graded VOD mobile TV service is available now on ROK TV.

Fantastic news for a great UK company! I’ve been watching ROK’s service expand with interest – and this is even more confirmation that they’re poised to set the industry alight.

“This is a massive technological breakthrough with regards to mobile TV, going forward” said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO, ROK Entertainment Group “as 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”.

Another reason for the mobile operators to sort out their data pricing. T-Mobile get it, Three get it, but why don’t companies like O2 and Orange (see here and here)? Anyway, back to Jonathan..

“Given that viewers only have the opportunity to watch TV on their mobiles for a few minutes at a time, we believe most people will be reluctant to pay anything more than a token amount to receive full-length broadcast TV on their mobiles” Kendrick went on to say “and that’s why we have not only made mobile TV available over mass-market 2.5G GPRS, rather than just over 3G networks, but have also enhanced the viewing experience by making the non-live channels truly VOD”.

Well done that man. Having travelled extensively with a 3G phone in the past year or so, I’m still disappointed to report that even recently, in some pretty urban areas, 3G data is a no-no. Until the networks get their networks upgraded, GPRS is sometimes the only option available.

If you’re interested in having a play, you’ll find the new VOD facility on the non-live channels over at the ROK website – and at just 99p per channel or £9.99 for the whole bouquet of 22 channels (with the first two months free), it’s a pretty good deal – especially if your mobile operator doesn’t provide their own TV-over-data offering, or insist on charging the earth for a load of pants content you don’t want.