Met Office launches
world's first bespoke on-demand weather service for mobile
MET OFFICE News
Release issued by COI News Distribution Service. 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." says Christian Harris,
founder and CEO of Gorillabox.
ENDS
For further information contact Met Office Press Office 01392 886655
Notes to editors:
For free weather forecasts from Met Office Mobile Weather - text
MET to 68008.
About Met Office
The Met Office is the UK's National Weather Service,
providing 24x7 world-renowned scientific excellence in weather,
climate and environmental forecasts and severe weather warnings
for the protection of life and property.
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk
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.
http://www.gorillabox.net