On-demand weather service for mobile

26 November 2008

One of the world leaders in weather forecasting and climate science, the Met Office, is about to deliver the world's first free-of-charge video on-demand weather service for mobile.

The new service, powered by the mobile TV specialist, Gorillabox, will be available through its own branded mobile portal. Weather forecasts, updated several times a day, will give you access to the very latest weather information direct from the new Met Office television studio in Millbank, London.

"Taking the Met Office's position as the country's leading weather forecaster to new media and building an e-commerce brand is a key strategy for us, and we will be leading the market in weather information through mobile TV", says Juliet Gardner, Business Manager for Met Office Media.

"Today's technology means we've become accustomed to having information at our fingertips, exactly when we want it. In teaming up with Gorillabox our forecasts do just that; delivering weather information that anyone can access at any time. We will be leading the market in mobile TV."

Gorillabox will provide the Met Office a full service, planning, managing and tracking the website's mobile TV weather campaign. This includes everything from ingesting and encoding the content, and deploying and maintaining the mobile site through to offering advertising opportunities within the site.

Commenting on the tie-up between the two organisations, Christian Harris, founder and CEO of Gorillabox, said: "There is huge demand for mobile TV and weather has consistently been one of the most successful forms of information on mobile. Only Gorillabox can handle the volumes of video streaming which the Met Office anticipate from a service such as this. The fact that Gorillabox not only designs, builds and manages sites such as the Met Office service but can also manage search marketing as well makes us truly a 360 degree service provider for great brands and content owners such as the Met Office."

To get the Met Office mobile internet content on your phone simply text MET to 84010 or type in the address http://metofficemobile.mobi The Met Office content is free, but users will need to check with their mobile provider on the cost of downloading video.

Notes

• About Gorillabox
  With over 25 years of operator, developer and content provider experience behind it, Gorillabox is a fully-managed service provider powering mobile TV for broadcasters, content owners and marketers.
   
  Gorillabox’s core offering is streaming video content to mobile handsets anywhere in Europe and the US on any scale. Around this, Gorillabox also offers search optimisation, advertising, downloads, WAP design and development and consultancy on how to build successful services.