ROK closes Jalipo portal

ROK Entertainment has closed the over the top TV portal Jalipo after a period of uncertainty. The remaining staff members, already significantly reduced from the 30 London-based staff in place when ROK acquired the business in May, have been made redundant.

“We had high hopes for Jalipo when we acquired the business earlier this year, but it did not gain the traction we were expecting,” ROK marketing director Bruce Renny told Broadband TV News. “Without significant and unplanned additional investment, we believe it would not grow significantly and, given the current economic climate, we have taken the decision to concentrate our resources and efforts on promoting our core revenue-generating mobile entertainment businesses whilst saving the costs associated with Jalipo.”

Last month ROK replaced the Jalipo website with a holding page for the ROK Box Office, which Renny says will launch as soon as economic conditions permit.

Jalipo launched its online marketplace in 2007 with a mix of live and on demand content. It ran a system of J Credits that were purchased to view content from channel partners including BBC Worldwide, Euronews, Al Jazeera English, Bloomberg, France 24, Rotana Europe, Deutsche Welle, Luxe, Mezzo and TeleSur.