ROK Acquires Player One

ROK Entertainment Group, the mobile technology, applications and services company, has today announced the acquisition of leading mobile gaming company, Player One.

Player One, established in 1999, has carved out a valuable niche in the mobile gaming market through the creation and exploitation of its IP and in early 2006, the company launched Player One Sports dedicated to bringing the best sport action and entertainment to mobile phones.

Player One's reputation has been built on securing the rights to high profile, internationally recognised sports personalities and brands, such as Freddie Flintoff’s Powerplay Cricket, Ronnie O’Sullivan’s Snooker, Jensen Button’s Grand Prix Racing, Frankie Dettori’s Horse Racing, and Ernie Els’s Golf, amongst others, and delivering them as mobile games.

Within the last 12 months Player One has launched over 20 mobile games.

Commenting on the acquisition, Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK said “Mobile gaming is proving to be evermore popular worldwide, so we are delighted to add Player One to our portfolio of revenue-generating mobile products and we look forward very much to the successful deployment of their existing library of world-class mobile games as well as developing new games, going forward.”

In addition to it’s high quality mobile games, Player One Sports has enhanced its content offering through the development and distribution of sports branded wallpapers, ringtones, video clips and uniquely, the live streaming of key sports events.

“Player One Sports is dedicated to creating the best sport action games for mobile phones and ROK gives us a hugely enhanced sales pipeline to a massive mobile market worldwide.” Added Pete Russell of Player One.

Player One’s games are compatible with most mobile Operating Systems, including the iPhone. Freddie Flintoff’s Powerplay Cricket will launch on Nintendo DS later this year and a range of Sony PSP mini games will be available in early 2010.

ROK Team Pick: The Return of Ugly Fruit

Curly cucumbers, crooked carrots and mottled mushrooms - odd-looking fruit and vegetables are making a comeback as 20-year-old EU rules are lifted.

Marketing standards for 26 types of produce have been scrapped, in a drive to cut EU bureaucracy, the BBC reports.

Ligeia Goes Rock!

Comic artist Rodrigo D. Ricci, creator of the vampire horror comic Ligeia which first appeared on mobile on ROK Comics (www.rokcomics.com/ligeia.php), has just released a video single based on the strip via YouTube.

Edgar the Cat is a joint production from Rodrigo and his brother Paulo Diaz Ricci and is the first single inspired by the Ligeia The Vampire comic.

You can view the first full series of the comic - 40 chilling episodes - via www.rokcomics.com/ligeia.php

• LIGEIA THE VAMPIRE and EDGAR the cat is copyright RD.RICCI. Edgar the cat song: Lyrics and Music by All Rights Reserved.

ROK Deploys in India

The ROK Entertainment Group, owners of ROK Comics, has announced the launch of its subsidiary office in India.

Tasked with marketing ROK’s suite of revenue-generating mobile applications to India’s leading Mobile Operating companies, ROK Entertainment India Ltd, located in New Delhi, is lead by seasoned marketer Jasjit Puri (Jasjit.puri@rokent.com).

“I am delighted to be equipped with ROK’s portfolio of revenue-generating mobile products at this exciting time in the development of the mobile industry in India” said Jasjit Puri. “ROK is at the cutting-edge in mobile entertainment and services innovation.”

ROK, best known for its award-winning mass-market mobile TV service which streams live TV to mobile handsets over existing 2.5G and 3G mobile networks as well as over Wi-Fi, has created more than 20 leading mobile applications and will soon launch ROK TV, ROK Comics, Mobile Video Messaging and mobile email in India with several of the major network operators.

The mobile industry continues to grow rapidly in India with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) reporting more than 9 million new GSM subscribers added in February alone to take the total to 277 million, nationwide.

Bharti Airtel cemented its position as the country's biggest operator by adding 2.7 million new users last month, with an overall customer base of 91 million customers and a market share of 32.8%, followed by Vodafone Essar's customer base which stands at 66 million. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) remains in third place with 44 million subscribers. Idea Cellular has a customer base of 41 million while other players such as Aircel, Reliance Telecom, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and BPL account for 13% of the market between.

“Crucially, India’s mobile operators are highly dynamic in their adoption and marketing of new mobile services while mobile customers tend to be hungry for content” added Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK Entertainment Group “and with Jasjit leading the deployment of our services, all of which are designed to raise ARPU while preventing churn, we are hugely excited for ROKs continued growth across the sub-continent.”

ROK Comics offered to 'Virtual Operators'

ROK Entertainment Group, the mobile technologies, applications and services provider and owner of ROK Comics, has announced the availability of a specially-packaged suite of revenue-generating products designed to enable MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) to compete with mainstream Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).

A mobile virtual network operator is a telecoms company that provides mobile phone services without owning its own network, examples being Virgin Mobile in the UK and US, and Call Plus and TracFone in the US. MVNOs essentially buy capacity in bulk and resell it at retail rates, but with what's known as the Average Revenue per User (ARPU) level falling across the mobile industry, it's widely recognized that the business models under which most MVNOs have operated to date need to be changed.

"Until now, most MVNOs have been competing for customers through the only means they have -- that of price-dumping their voice and text service offerings," said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK. "However, with Operator hosts doing likewise, the margins for most MVNOs have been steadily eroding and are, in many instances, unsustainable."

There are currently approximately 360 planned or operational MVNOs world-wide, according to consultancy firm Takashi Mobile, with the UK, US, Germany and France among the countires having the most such networks.

In addition to ROK Comics, ROK's MVNO product pack includes such services as low-cost mobile calling technologies, low-cost SMS technologies as well as ROK TV, Push Inbox mobile email, FreeBe TV, News on Demand and Fonepark Mobile Content.

"Our aim is to level the playing field for MVNOs through offering them a one-stop-shop of relevant and appropriate revenue-generating services designed to raise ARPU, reduce customer churn and enable our partner MVNOs to pro-actively poach customers from rival network operators," added Kendrick.

• MVNOs may request more detail on ROK's suite of products at www.rokent.com/MVNO

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