and information services, today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary PocketGroup is supporting Sony Ericsson’s new PlayNow™ arena initiative.

PlayNow™ arena is a web portal for Sony Ericsson customers to access media rich mobile content such as music, games, ringtones, wallpapers and themes via their mobile phone or PC.  Currently available in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, additional markets will be rolled out to during 2008 and 2009.

Chosen for its music heritage, PocketGroup is one of four companies currently providing independent label content to the PlayNow™ arena.  One of its key responsibilities is to ensure a local edge is given to the web portal through ‘shop-fronts’ so that popular local artists, for example, can be promoted on the site to encourage users to try the service.  The content lifecycle is also managed by the WIN plc subsidiary which updates the web content to ensure relevance and real user pulling-power.

Bought by WIN plc in January of this year, PocketGroup distributes content globally to 60 network operators in approximately 30 countries.

Graham Rivers, CEO of WIN plc says that his team will be using their understanding of what sells on a local level to support Sony Ericsson.  “Providing content to Sony Ericsson is on an invitation only basis”, says Rivers. “Our content lifecycle expertise is one of the reasons we were asked to participate and PocketGroup’s experience ensures we choose the right content to encourage users to trial the service.”

“With more than one million DRM-free tracks from major labels including Sony BMG, Warner Music and EMI as well as a number of independent music labels and aggregators, PlayNow™ is likely to be extremely popular with its users,” he adds. “This is a booming market and to have the opportunity to be involved with a major force such as Sony Ericsson is very exciting for WIN plc,” concludes Rivers.

About PlayNow™ arena

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications officially debuted the service in Nordic countries at the end of August 2008. The PlayNow arena promotes music without the digital rights management (“DRM”) technology and offers ring tones, games, themes and backgrounds to either buy or download for free. PlayNow arena links with Track ID, a feature which can identify a song by recording a snippet of it.

About WIN

WIN is an innovator in interactive mobile entertainment and information distribution with a ten-year track record of developing an unrivalled variety of services for Europe's leading content owners, mobile operators, corporate enterprises, broadcasters and media corporations.

WIN enables companies to use mobile services to improve business efficiency, grow revenues and reduce costs. WIN's client list includes such household names as Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, Sony Ericsson, AOL, Barclays Bank, Centrica and E-On.

Headquartered in Buckinghamshire, UK, the Group has built on its success by extending its reach into new overseas markets including Ireland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Scandinavia, Australia, Africa, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. WIN is structured into three operational units, Managed Services, Enterprise Solutions and New Media.

Information Source:    WIN plc