BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.—ROK Entertainment Group U.S. expanded its mobile video offerings with 13 free channels of news, music and sports.
The subsidiary of the U.K.-based wireless video company unveiled FreeBe TV, a WAP-based service for roughly two dozen 2.5G and 3G phone models. Channels include classic movies, vintage comedy clips, extreme sports and a news offering read by computer-animated monkeys.
ROK plans to expand the service for PC users via Internet TV (IPTV), and two new channels are in the works. The offering complements ROK’s place-shifting service, which is available in the United States and United Kingdom, as well as a mobile video subscription service for U.K. users.
The service is targeted at users with “all-you-can-eat” data plans.
While the new service doesn’t feature high-profile, branded content—unlike, for instance, Showtime’s new off-deck mobile video offering—ROK appears to be gaining ground in Europe, where carriers are hastily deploying wireless video services. The company fared well in a recent Strategy Analytics survey of U.K. mobile TV services, where the company has content deals with CNN, the Cartoon Network and National Geographic.
“This is mass-market 2.5G rather than niche 5G and it’s free, which dramatically increases access to mobile TV and massively reduces barriers to adoption,” said ROK executive Jonathan Kendrick. “Taking a mass-market product to a mass-market audience via a mass-market mobile technology (2.5G) is the best way for the mobile industry to grow.”
