Submitted by Mike Grenville on Mon, 07 Feb 2005 14:48

MTV has renamed its Asia Awards 2005 as MTV Asia Aid. The global broadcast of the event will include premium rate SMS donations managed by mBlox across five countries across Europe.

i-pop selected mBlox to manage the operator connectivity, transmission and financial settlement services for the MTV broadcast. Mobile users will be able to donate money in support of the tsunami relief efforts by sending a billable text message to a shortcode. This shortcode was promoted on TV spots and during the benefit concert.

"It is important that we keep contributing to the recovery efforts and make it easy for young people around the world to take action. The partnership with i-pop and mBlox serves to enhance the fundraising initiative in a reliable, accessible and convenient manner most relevant to our audiences," said Lee Cheok Yew, Executive Vice President, Southeast Asia and Mobile/Online, MTV Networks Asia.

The MTV Asia Aid global benefit concert was held on 3rd February at the IMPACT Arena in Bangkok, Thailand, featured a host of artists from Asia and around the world, with more than 11,000 fans who gathered to show their support for tsunami recovery efforts.

The concert will air on MTV channels globally from and will be rebroadcast for two weeks after the event. mBlox will provide PSMS capabilities for 5 European countries

"We are very pleased to work with MTV and UNICEF in order to implement such a large-scale, international PSMS appeal," said Mark Brimblecombe, Chief Executive Officer of i-POP.

"Premium SMS has quickly become the world's billing method of choice for interactivity. We're very pleased that it is now being put to such a good purpose," said Jeff Clark, Chief Executive Officer of mBlox.

www.mtvasiaaid.com

www.mblox.com

www.i-pop.net