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

YuuROK Mobile Social Community Hits 300,000 Users

ROK Entertainment Group, owners of ROK Comics and the YuuZoo Corporation, the global mobile media company, have jointly announced their mobile social network service, YuuROK, has passed the 300,000 registered user milestone and is on target to generate one million users within the next few months and three million users worldwide within 12 months.

Juniper Research predicts the number of active users of mobile social networking sites is expected to rise from 54 million in 2008 to nearly 730 million in 2013.

Advertising-funded, YuuROK is free to use providing the user has a data package in their mobile tariff. YuuROK is available from www.yuurok.com/web.

YuuROK is currently generating more than 20,000 new sign-ups a day worldwide through integrated promotional campaigns and through existing users notifying the existence of the service to their friends and families, virally.

“YuuROK not only delivers Blackberry-like mobile email functionality to mass-market WAP-enabled mobile phones at no cost to the user, it also provides a unique mobile social network service with several value-added applications such as ebooks, daily news and sports news feeds, daily comics and jokes all designed to encourage uptake and use of the service.” said Ron Creevey, Group President of YuuZoo.

It is the email utility aspect of YuuROK which generates repeat usage which enables YuuROK to launch a multitude of additional services into the community.

“Mobile email is a very fast-growing service worldwide and YuuROK is a mass-market, all-devices capable mobile email service” said Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK “but YuuROK is much more than just a mobile email service and we will shortly be adding our GeeSpark mobile social network application which allows people to communicate virally and send images and YouTube videos to each other from their mobile phones.”

• YuuROK is available from www.yuurok.com/web

ROK Launches GeekSpark

With the mobile social network market predicted to grow from 54 million users in 2008 to 730 million user in the next 5 years, ROK Entertainment, owners of ROK Comics, has announced the imminent worldwide launch of GeeSpark, the world’s first mobile viral messaging service.

The fastest growth in the mobile social networking market will come from the Far East and China, according to Juniper Research in a report published this week. In addition, Juniper predicts it will be advertising-funded mobile social networks which will drive the revenue growth of user-generated content from $1.1 billion in 2007 to $7.4 billion in 2013.


Following the hugely successful adoption of broadcast messaging on computers, where users share messages with multiple friends at the same time, GeeSpark will enable users to chat, share messages, images and YouTube videos on their mobile phones and forward these to their friends and groups, in a viral fashion.


GeeSpark has been developed by ROK’s Finland-based mobile services development company, Geniem. GeeSpark is currently in invitation-only Beta mode and will be advertising-funded. The service is free to join from www.geespark.com and is free to use providing the user has a data plan in their mobile tariff. 



“In the past few years, there has been a phenomenonal uptake in, and migration from, the use of email onto instant messaging and now onto multi-person ‘broadcast’ messaging using PC-based social networking services" said Tuomas Kumpula, Managing Director of Geniem, “and we believe the next evolution in the networking space will be through mobile phones wherein GeeSpark users can share messages, images and videos from YouTube with all of their friends at once, on a viral basis, through their mobile phones."


Commenting on GeeSpark, Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK said “To be launching the world’s first mobile viral messaging service is tremendously exciting and is another major milestone in the development and deployment of our suite of revenue-generating mobile services and technologies.”


80% of World's Population on Mobile by 2013

Despite turmoil in world financial markets over the last year, the $1 trillion mobile industry continues to confound expectations, with spectacular and accelerating growth, says Portio Research in its report, 'Worldwide Mobile Market Forecasts 2009 – 2013'.

The report, published this week, reveals that over half the world now uses a mobile phone and predicts that 80% of the world's population – 5.8 billion people - will be doing so by the end of 2013.

Put into perspective, 5.8 billion mobile phones represents more than twice the total, combined, number of TV sets and PC’s globally.

Among the top 20 growth markets there are few surprises, the report says. China wins the top spot, just ahead of India. These two countries alone are expected to contribute over 1 billion additional mobile phone users in the next 5 years.

Africa, the Middle East and Latin America are also expected to experience high growth, estimated at 13.3%, 10.7% and 9.9% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate), respectively.

Meanwhile, despite rising mobile data revenues, mobile ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) continues to decline, and is predicted to fall from $23.20 in 2005 to $15.80 by the end of 2013, largely because the additional subscriber growth is likely to come from low per capita income markets.

Nokia, the world’s leading handset manufacturer, shipped 437 million handsets in 2007, while Samsung has displaced Motorola from the number 2 spot. In the first two quarters of 2008, LG displaced Sony Ericsson from the number 4 spot.

Commenting on the report, Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK said “We are enthused by the Portio report as it highlights not just the staggering and continuing growth of the mobile industry, but also the increasing need of operators and manufacturers alike to develop non-voice revenue streams, which is exactly what we offer”.

ROK Entertainment Group Inc., (OTCBB: ROKE) founded in 2004 and owners of ROK Comics, is a global mobile entertainment group. With approximately 200 staff worldwide, ROK has filed more than 40 international patents for its suite of innovative mobile technologies.

With 3.3 billion mobile handsets in use worldwide, the mobile entertainment industry is a multi-billion dollar business.

ROK TV enables the streaming of live and on-demand TV to mobile phones over mass-market 2.5G, as well as over 3G and Wi-Fi.

More Info: www.rokent.com

ROK Comics Goes Free To View!

ROK Comics is pleased to announce many of the comics published on the service are now Free To View on the web in an ad-supported format.

Marking a major change in the way ROK Comics promotes its comics to mobile service, almost all the comics on the web site (www.rokcomics.com) are now Free To View online.

ROK Comics, which offers comic creators and comic publishers the means to create comics in a format suitable for mobile phone presentation via WAP sites, is also making strips viewable via its web site in an ad-supported format.

The online versions of the strips can be embedded on almost any web site using players similar to many video sharing sites such as ROK’s own Newsjack.tv service or sites such as YouTube.

“We have allowed limited viewing of Pro Comics online since the service began last year,” explains Managing Editor John Freeman, “but an opportunity has arisen for us to promote the service in an ad-supported format on the web, and we’ve chosen to try that route.

“We think this is an appropriate move for ROK Comics,” added ROK Media CEO Graham Baines. “It enables full promotion of most of the comic brands we feature.”

There will be some territorial and contractual restrictions on certain strips being published under license but top independent creator strips such as David Fletcher’s humour strip Crumb, Ian Gibson’s quirky Annie Droid, Chris Reynolds’ superheroine series Moon Queen, Rich Diesslin’s Mobile Gospel, Kennedy Rose’ hilarious Anomaly, Rodrigo Ricci’s vampire tale Ligeia, John Maybrury’s SpaceBabe and Josh Alves’ Tastes Like Chicken are now viewable in full online.

“Reaction to the change has been positive,” says John. “From the outset, we knew ROK Comics was at the forefront of a new development for comics, bringing them to mobile, and the past year has been a tremendous and exciting learning curve.

“Many creators have been very positive about comics on mobile, recognising the potential of a huge market that big comics publishers are just beginning to wake up to. Like us, they see mobile comics as a way of raising awareness of their creations in a format that reaches many new readers, and the potential, ultimately, for making money from this new form.

“Many see mobile a great way to promote their characters and strips, complementing their other distribution methods.”

Creators and publisher will share in any paid-for ad revenues generated by the online presentation, just as they already share revenue on WAP subscription page views from ROK’s mobile subscriber services operated in partnership with key telecoms such as Telenor, Exact Mobile and retailers such as Claires.

Hand in hand with the mainly behind the scenes changes noted above, the ROK Comics design team have transformed the main WAP site (wap.rokcomics.com). For pricing details in your country go to www.rokcomics.com/subscribe.php.

In the UK, for a free trial of the service on your mobile, text COMIC to 83736. For a full subscription text COMIC SUB to 83736. The UK subscription price is just £3 a month.
Don't forget to bookmark the site when you follow the link you are sent!

ROK’s Fun Little Movies Now Available on MSN Mobile Video

ROK Entertainment Group's made-for-mobile comedy channel, Fun Little Movies is featured as a new MSN Mobile video channel currently available to millions of viewers on mobile phones and PC’s.

MSN Mobile offers a broad lineup of premium, branded video programming to include Fun Little Movies for people to watch on PC’s, free of charge, with the service being entirely advertising supported. Advertising will be incorporated into the mobile stream service in the near future.

In addition to Fun Little Movies and ROK Comics, ROK develops and delivers a portfolio of revenue-generating mobile applications, content, services and technologies including streamed mobile TV, push email services and data compression technologies, to mobile operators and handset manufacturers alike.

Commenting on the initiative, Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK said “To be working with MSN Mobile on this highly innovative initiative is fantastic and we are delighted to continue our global push of mobile entertainment services in this way”.

• Fun Little Movies are also available via newsjack.tv

ROK's Fun Little Movies and Monkey With A Shotgun Team-up for Worldwide Mobile Content Distribution

Fun Little Movies, a subsidiary of ROK Entertainment Group Inc. which owns ROK Comics, has announced that it has teamed up with award-winning comedy collective Monkey With A Shotgun to create an original comedy series for its global mobile distribution network.

The new series, titled The Learnin’ Place, will launch later this month with short video clips available to download and watch for free on iPhones and from Sprint and Verizon Wireless ‘Rhythm Video’ services across the US.

The Learnin’ Place is a satirical look at the proliferation of adult education classes, taken to the extreme and will be advertising-funded.

“We are thrilled to be working with creative talent like Monkey With A Shotgun,” said FLM's President and Chief Creative Officer Frank Chindamo. “Our global audience expects great content from FLM and this deal is part of our ongoing strategy to reach out and work in co-operation with the best creators in the business to deliver instantly engaging mobile content.”

FLM, based in California, specializes in the development, production and distribution of original video content for global distribution to mobile network operators. It has distribution deals with Sprint, Verizon and ATT as well as several handset makers and overseas partners, from China and Japan to Europe, Africa and South America.

Monkey With A Shotgun is a collective of writer/directors (Padraic Culham, Cher Lytle, Rod Ramsey, Debra Stolberg and Kip Stolberg) who teamed up in 2007 to prove that online comedy content could be hilarious and still maintain high quality production values. Their vision has paid off with millions of views of their comedy shorts since the collective began. Monkey With A Shotgun shorts, including the mega-hit Spanish for Your Nanny and the cult favorite Tales from the Laundry series, have been awarded featured status on the front pages of Yahoo, MySpace, Revver, SuperDeluxe and College Humor.

• More information can be found at www.monkeywithashotgun.com

ROK Entertainment Group Inc. Reports First Quarter Results for Fiscal Year 2009

ROK Entertainment Group Inc., the global mobile entertainment group and owner of ROK Comics, has announced its financial results for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2008.

ROK has continued to develop its revenue-generating mobile product portfolio, comprising over 40 applications, from high-quality mobile TV streamed live and on-demand over mass-market mobile networks and the internet, to the storage of copy-protected video content for play on mobile devices, through mobile Voice over Internet Protocol (mVoIP) technologies, mobile social networks, data compression services, mobile conference-calling services and an advertising funded e-mail service for mobile users. It currently has corporate operations in the United Kingdom, the Peoples Republic of China, the United States and South Africa which are all active, as well as joint ventures in Russia, Brazil and Pakistan.

Since inception, ROK has concentrated on developing a broad portfolio of mobile technologies, services and applications and, as an expected result, has had limited revenue from the sale of products and services. Revenues for Q1 2009 are $1.0m (2007: $0.6m), representing an increase of 73%. Its net losses for the quarters ended June 30, 2008 and 2007 are $20.9m, of which $14.6m was a charge made during the quarter for stock-based compensation in accordance with US GAAP, and $4.5m, respectively, and its accumulated deficits as of June 30, 2008 and 2007 are $98.9m and $78.0m, respectively. ROK expects to increase its spending significantly as it continues to expand its infrastructure and its sales and marketing efforts, and continue research and development. As a consequence of this, ROK expects to raise additional financing to achieve its operating goals.

The Group experienced strong operational performance this quarter, alongside the focus on the current funding round. Notable developments include the acquisition of IPTV company Jalipo, which offers live streaming of TV content over the internet; the addition of its mobile TV service, ROK TV, and its mobile conference-calling service, ROK Talk, to Telenor’s ‘Playground’; offering the works of Spike Milligan to mobile users via www.spike-milligan.com and the Group’s subsidiary, ROK Comics, adding Roy of the Rovers to its comics for mobile download; and partnering with South African Airways, Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation, Vodacom and Motorola in the search for a Global Soccer Star in Tanzania, which by July 29 had conducted trials with 10,000 aspiring football players in Tanzania with thousands more lined up.

During the quarter, the Group’s subsidiary, ROK Diamonds Limited, entered into a letter of agreement with Australian-listed Mineral Commodities Ltd for the purchase of Kariba Kono diamondiferous gravel dump in Sierra Leone, which would represent the first stage in the divestment of ROK Diamonds from ROK. The Group also disposed of its interest in Rock Group plc, a manufacturer of laptop PCs and TV/PC screens.

A key agreement entered into this year and implemented this quarter is for the provision of white-label mobile TV services, including content, for America Movil, which has mobile carrier operations in 16 territories across the Americas including Mexico. This should start commercial operations in Q4.

There have been several significant developments post period-end, including the deployment of ROK’s News-on-Demand mobile video service through Ufone in Pakistan, and the launch of ROK’s Push-In-Box mobile email service via its distribution partner YuuZoo, with the service being co-branded YuuROK. Delivering regular news updates via MMS, Ufone’s Video News Service is already seeing substantial subscriber uptake whilst in just six weeks to the end of July, YuuROK had achieved almost 100,000 sign-ups. Advertising revenues are expected to grow considerably in Q3.

As a result of these acquisitions, agreements and extensions to its product and intellectual property portfolio, management believes that ROK is well-positioned for expansion over the rest of this year and beyond. The Group’s achievements were recognized when its California-based subsidiary, Fun Little Movies, won the Content Award at the prestigious Mobile Entertainment Forum in Cannes, against competition including BBH, MTV Networks International, Orange Israel and Donna Productions.

Laurence Alexander, Group CEO, commented: “This quarter has witnessed continued momentum in operational performance and we have built upon the foundations laid last year. We have again increased our revenues like-for-like, established and furthered relationships with key global players in the telecommunications sector, enhanced our product and service offerings, which was helped by our strategic acquisitions, and strengthened our intellectual property portfolio. Our achievement is reflected in the Group receiving industry recognition in winning prestigious awards, launching new services and substantially growing our subscriber base organically. As a result, ROK is well-positioned for long-term growth with strengthened foundations from which we expect to continue to rapidly expand our user base worldwide. We look forward to the future with confidence.”

• Read the full press release on the ROKCorp web site

ROK's Fun Little Movies wins MEFFY Award

ROK Entertainment subsidiary, Fun Little Movies won the Content Award for its Fun Little Movies Channel at the prestigious 2008 Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) in Cannes last week.

Fun Little Movies, based in California, specializes in the development, production and distribution of original video content for global distribution to mobile network operators and was the first US company to produce comedic films for mobile phones worldwide, when it launched as a channel on Sprint TV back in in 2004. Shows include the animated series such as Hoota N Snoz, Doodlez (above), Ms. Rabbble and more.

The Meffy awards, which received applications from 21 countries across four continents, are judged by an independent panel of national media and leading trade journalists and analysts. The Content Award shortlist, which received the third highest number of entries, included FLM, MTV Networks International, and Orange.

This isn't the first award for the company: FLM's "Fun Funny Phone Films" have won 22 awards to date, including CTIA's "World Smallest Film Festival" and two Golden Eagles at the American Cine' Awards, as well as The Content Award at Cannes in 2008, over MTV and Orange. FLM was also a finalist at the Cannes Film Festival for Best Short Film and the 2008 Mobile Content Award in London.

Commenting on FLM's success, Rimma Perelmuter, MEF Executive Director, said "With distribution from Brunei to Bethlehem to Burbank, Fun Little Movies' collection of funny, short, made-for-mobile comedy films has proven the universal appeal of laughter and snackable content."

"Our gratitude goes first to ROK Entertainment Group," said FLM's President and Chief Creative Officer Frank Chindamo, "who, since acquiring FLM in 2007, have supported and helped enhance our product offering, such as in partnership with ROK Motion.

"We would also like to thank the MEF, our own creative staff, and all the filmmakers with whom we have partnered or whose work we have licensed. In fact, look for our latest production, HighSpeed Dating, written and directed by Terry Rossio and Jocelyn Stamat. Terry wrote and/or produced the Shrek, National Treasure and Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and we have high hopes for the series release later this year."

"We're delighted to have won this award and congratulate the FLM team," added Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK. "This award demonstrates the success of ROK's growth strategy as well as recognition that the creation and delivery of relevant, funny and fast-paced mobile content is great for mobile consumption. FLM faced tough competition and this award is proof of their position in the market for the production and delivery of mobile content."

Fun Little Movies have played on numerous US TV networks worldwide including HBO, Showtime, CBS, Playboy, MTV and Comedy Central. FLM's mobile comedy can be watched on Sprint, Verizon, Nokia, Motorola and ATT mobile phones, on Veoh.com, Revver.com, Vuze.com and many other top video sites, and on other mobile and Internet platforms. FLM also has distribution deals with several handset makers and overseas partners, from China and Japan to Europe, Africa and South America.

• Visit the Fun Little Movies website

ROK Acquires Mobile Applications Developer Geniem

ROK Entertainment Group, the global mobile entertainment company and owners of ROK Comics, today announced it had acquired a 51% controlling interest in Geniem, a leading Finnish mobile and web applications development company.

Geniem pioneered On-Device Portals (ODP) in 2003 and offer rich mobile marketing via these ODPs, Bluetooth marketing solutions and white label social networking applications for Media, Brands and Carriers. Currently their services are being used by household names including Nokia, Volvo, ABC, Pepsi, SonyBMG, Australian Broadcast Corporation, Mondadori France, Digital MultiChoice, Rotana, Samsung, Sanoma Belgium, Santander Bank and SonyEricsson.

"This acquisition marks another milestone in the development of ROK" said Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK, "as it augments our existing mobile products portfolio by placing us in the forefront of on device portals, Bluetooth technologies and social media via mobile and web applications. With over 15 million mobile phone installations globally, Geniem's technology is ideally positioned to power the new generation of enhanced mobile media services."

"I see major opportunities in partnering with ROK to roll-out our exciting products for ROK's existing customer base. Especially with the introduction of the new white label mobile social networking product targeted mainly for network carriers," said Tuomas Kumpula, CEO of Geniem.

ROK Financial Results on the Up

ROK Entertainment Group Inc., the global mobile entertainment group that owns ROK Comics, has announced its financial results for the third quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2007.

Highlights of its latest report include:

• A revenues increase for the quarter by 518% to $7.0m (Q3 2006: $1.1m)

• In the nine month period revenues were up by 203% to $7.8m from the corresponding period last year (9 months 2006: $2.5m)

• Completion of reverse takeover into Cyberfund Inc. and consequent listing on the OTC Bulletin Boards

• Acquired controlling stakes in Fun Little Movies and Rock (a subsidiary of Eikon Group Ltd)

• Nokia is offering both versions of the Group’s mobile TV on its handsets. ROK TV is being pre-loaded onto the E and N series of handsets sold by Nokia in Europe and FreeBe TV on all suitable handsets in the United States

ROK is now well positioned to take advantage of the future growth in handset numbers, which is expected to increase from three to four billion and be concentrated in China and the Indian sub-continent, where ROK are focusing their immediate deployments: ROK Comics is already available in Pakistan via Telenor's djuice wap service.

“We are very pleased to report results that were slightly ahead of management expectations," commented Laurence Alexander, Chief Executive of ROK, "reflecting the increase in consumer spending on value added services provided by mobile operators.”

• For a detailed report, follow link Here

ROK buys Matchday Stake

ROK Entertainment Group Inc. the mobile technologies, applications and entertainment developer and owner of ROK Comics has announced it has bought a strategic stake in Matchday Entertainment Limited, a China-based subsidiary of Asia Poker Limited, to deploy the first 3D online poker service in China.

Matchday’s unique 3D Texas Holdem service is tailored specifically to the Chinese market and only players from China will be allowed to participate on this platform.

Once a simple registration process has been completed players are able to experience the thrill and excitement of playing Texas Holdem in 3D, with local customer service personnel available to provide full player assistance.

The game is based on a football theme where players can choose to wear their favourite team’s shirt before joining the table of their choice (all named after famous international stadiums) and play. Players can completely customize their playing figure by gender, ethnicity and even down to the type of jewelry they want to wear.

Tournaments will be a key feature of the game to encourage competition between players and improve their skill levels.

“We are really proud to be bringing our 3D technology with the latest gaming advances to the people of China”, said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman of ROK. “We have combined the excitement of the big soccer stage with fantastic 3D graphics and all the skill of playing Texas Holdem”.

Asia Poker Limited is one of the lead sponsors of the National Traktor Poker Tournament which took place in Guangzhou, China in December 2007. The objective of the tournament is to further promote poker as a sport in China.

Through this sponsorship, Asia Poker Limited created a partnership with the Guangzhou Chess Institute and Guangzhou Poker Game Association and Jupiter Entertainment Limited to promote the new 3D game.

“The excitement and interest in online poker tournaments in China is simply immense” added Kendrick “and, coupled with our plans for a mobile version of the service, we are hugely excited at the potential of the business.”

• More information about the 3D Texas Holdem game can be found at www.3dmdp.com

ROK strikes Film 24 deal

UK TV channel Film 24, broadcast by Sky, has struck a deal with ROK's mobile TV service, which will see its bi-monthly magazine show Film Extra made available to Rok's UK mobile TV subscribers. Film 24 will also launch mobile TV services in South Africa, Latin America and China.

The deal with ROK is part of Film 24's multi-platform plans to reach a global audience.