LONDON, May 7, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ROK Entertainment Group, the mobile technology, applications and services company, has today announced an agreement with leading pan-African VAS aggregator, Groupe Digital Afrique (GDA), to deliver World Cup soccer content -- supplied by Goal.com -- to 25 countries and up to 45 Mobile Operators across Africa beginning 1st June.
The ROK-powered WAP service containing goal alerts and news, delivered to subscribers via SMS, along with World Cup ringtones, wallpapers and interactive shirts will be distributed into 45 Operators, such as MTN, Zain and Orange in 25 countries including South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana across Africa.
"Interest in this summer's FIFA World Cup is growing incredibly fast worldwide, particularly across Africa, and is set to reach fever pitch come kick-off on the 11th June," said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK. "We know that fans will want to be kept in touch with every goal and all the latest news throughout the event -- as it happens -- and that's why we're so excited to be able to deliver our World Cup mobile service, containing Goal.com's content, through GDA's existing sales channels with Operators right across the continent."
GDA's partner Operators comprise a total of 150 million mobile phone subscribers in 25 countries across Africa and, from these, DGA and ROK are targeting 750,000 subscribers to the World Cup content portal during the event itself.
"We will be offering our news alert service, delivered via text, at an average of USD $0.35c per week and, once the World Cup is over and the final whistle has been blown, we'll continue to offer our subscribers a broad range of soccer content, including the major Leagues from the leading soccer-playing nations as well as local and regional news, goal flashes and other soccer-related from around the world," added Kendrick.
About ROK:
Founded in 2004, ROK Entertainment Group is a mobile technologies, applications and services development company with a suite of revenue-generating mobile services which it licenses to Mobile Operators and Handset Manufacturers worldwide. Headquartered in the UK, ROK is best known for its award-winning mobile TV services which streams video -- live and on demand -- over 2.5G, 3G and Wi-Fi®.
The ROK Entertainment Group logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=5361
Forward-Looking Statement:
The information contained in this news release, other than historical information, consists of forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these statements. Forward-looking statements regarding the timing of developing, testing and releasing existing and new products, of marketing and selling them, of deriving revenues and profits from them, as well as the effects of those revenues and profits on the Group's margins and financial position, are uncertain because many of the factors affecting the timing of those items are beyond the Group's control.