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The Dating Channel moves into profitability

5/20/2004

The Dating Channel moves into profitability
Telecom One can today announce that the Dating Channel, the digital TV station it wholly owns, has become a profitable business. Launched in November 2000, the channel is one of very few new digital TV channels to have achieved this.

The channel was created by Telecom One founder and managing director, Patrick Naughton, as an entertaining and dynamic means of utilising Telecom One's unique telephony services. From its launch the channel has been a pioneer, offering people in the UK the chance to film profiles for free and contact other singles through premium rate telephone services and the Internet.

The move into profitability was recognised by an internal audit of the business' management accounts.

However, it is the channel's use of SMS that has proven pivotal to the channel's profitability. Since April the channel has included a text chat facility which allows viewers to interact with each other live and onscreen by text. The premium rate texting has seen revenues quadruple to their present level.

Patrick Naughton said, "From the start, Telecom One knew that a concept as good as The Dating Channel would become a profitable business, and it's exciting to see this achieved so soon. Many similar-sized stations are unfortunately still haemorrhaging money in the current climate, and the less well known channels are struggling to find revenue, with ad sales sluggish.

"We knew that a creative approach to generating revenue was needed, and we have done just that, using telephony and SMS to create a fully interactive service for viewers that makes the channel more entertaining and generates income. I would expect more and more TV stations will need to think creatively in order to make money. Its an important day for us and gives us the financial base to make bold plans for the future."

Richard Jukes, managing director of The Dating Channel, said, "The reason I became involved with The Dating Channel two years ago is because I could see its potential to become an exciting and innovative channel. Becoming profitable reflects the unique interactive experience we offer our viewers, and the fact that the viewers love what we have to offer as a community experience. I am looking forward to staying ahead of the game and taking the channel even further."

About Telecom One
Launched in 1997, Telecom One, is the leading UK provider of content to wireless devices with proven billing systems, J2ME hosting capabilities and its own WAP gateway. Telecom One has also established pioneering multiple routes to marketing including digital television. It also offers a range of marketing numbers and digital content. Telecom One is a fully licensed public telephone operator (PTO) as well as a RIPE ISP. As such, it can intelligently route any type of UK, European or US number to organisations and call centres, anywhere in the world. On the digital content side, Telecom One runs The Dating Channel, available via Sky mini-dish, and is currently developing a new text chat channel. Telecom One currently has over 19,000 lines capacity and runs over 1 million UK numbers. Based in London, the company was listed as one of the 'Sunday Times Tech 100' fastest growing UK technology companies in November 2001

About The Dating Channel
The Dating Channel is the UK's first truly interactive TV station, offering viewers the chance to interact with fellow viewers via text messages and the Internet. It was launched in November 2000, by a team including the current managing director Richard Jukes. It can be found on Digital Satellite channel 685.
The television channel runs in parallel to the UK's fastest growing dating Internet site, thedatingchannel.com, which currently has over 25,000 subscribers. The site allows users to post their individual profiles and look for similar minded people. The site is also fully interactive with a chat room, internal email between users and TxT TV.
The aim of the Dating Channel is to establish the channel as must see cult television, with the first truly interactive programming available to consumers.
The Dating Channel is owned by Telecom One, Europe's fastest growing new carrier, which provides the technology that enables phone and text based interactivity.