Company Profile

YooMedia plc is one of the fastest growing interactive entertainment companies in the UK.
Since 1997 we have been developing and launching leading B2C consumer brands in the gaming and community sectors. We also work in a B2B capacity with leading brand owners, agencies, content developers and broadcasters to design and develop their interactive content strategies.

Led by Executive Chairman Dr. Michael Sinclair and Group Managing Director Neil MacDonald, YooMedia has assembled a highly experienced management team that possesses a unique blend of skills and experience in the areas of Digital TV, Internet and mobile phone services and technology.

With main office locations in London, Exeter and Maidstone, YooMedia manages core assets including:

Over 30 office locations throughout the UK alone

State-of-the-art studio, production and post-production facilities at our Wapping location.

UK broadcast return path & bandwidth owner

Fully fledged UK Bookmaker License

Database with over 350K UK singles

SMS Engine access with international reach

Fully staffed 50 seat Customer Contact Centre in Maidstone, Kent

YooMedia Dating & Chat - Our dating subsidiary company manages the oldest and largest UK-owned dating brands including Dateline, Club Sirius and Avenues. YooMedia Dating has over 20 office locations throughout the UK and also manages YooChat, our world-leading interactive chat service found on UK digital cable on the Telewest platform (platform extensions planned for 2005).

YooMedia Gambling & Games - Combining the brands of Avago and Channel 425 (in partnership with William Hill) YooMedia is on the leading-edge of interactive fixed odds, casino and poker gambling services for digital TV, the web and 3G mobile phones. Our gaming business also manages YooPlay, the only interactive just for fun games channel found on all four Digital TV platforms in the United Kingdom.

YooMedia Enhanced Solutions (YES) - YES works with brand owners, agencies, content owners and broadcasters to clarify the options, define the strategies and deliver the interactive content that enhances consumer and audience experiences. YES customers include the BBC, Nestle, Celador, William Hill, Channel 4, ZipTV, The Cartoon Network and HR Owen.

http://www.immediatefuture.co.uk/247


YooMedia plc signs joint venture agreement with ICTV

YooMedia Plc

03/11/2003

YooMedia plc, the interactive TV and wireless application service provider, and ICTV, the creator of HeadendWare today signed a joint venture agreement to introduce the next generation of interactive services to UK cable operators.

HeadendWare is a centralised platform that enables cable operators to deliver next-generation subscriber services to any digital set top box. HeadendWare uses headend-based processing power and the existing digital plant to deliver cost-effective, two-way services including high-fidelity audio and full-motion video by performing real-time digital video and audio encoding of existing digital content.

With HeadendWare, digital cable subscribers can use their existing set top boxes and remote controls to interact with robust multimedia applications developed with standard PC, Web and Java tools. HeadendWare supports the latest versions of HTML, JavaScript, Java, Windows Media Player, Flash, RealPlayer and QuickTime. HeadendWare removes set-top box and middleware constraints on the delivery of compelling interactive multimedia content.

Under the terms of the partnership agreement, YooMedia will work with ICTV to introduce advanced levels of interactive multimedia entertainment to YooMedias existing digital cable partners in the UK. YooMedia intends to use its existing cable user management, portal and billing technologies, alongside the HeadendWare technology, to deliver a new generation of original and third party interactive content on cable in the UK.

Eddie Abrams, YooMedias Development Director says, This agreement has the potential to revolutionise the UK digital cable interactive experience. We believe that the versatility of the ICTV HeadendWare solution, combined with YooMedias experience in developing sophisticated interactive TV applications, is an unbeatable combination.

Rick Cluthe, Managing Director of ICTV Europe comments, The availability of content and applications is vital to the success of interactive television. YooMedias commitment to digital cable interactive television in the UK is well recognised; we expect that their applications expertise and the HeadendWare platform will combine to speed the pace of interactive deployment in Europe.

Just emailed Yoo to try and find out the exact date of the Interim Results. Will post back when I get a reply.

Thank you for e-mailing YooMedia. We will be publishing our results prior to 30 September.

Best regards

Investor Relations

Excellent quick response - under 30 minutes

Down 6% today, i've gone in the red, hope it recovers by the end of the week.

rkauser
Drop today was on low volume; less than 0.5% of equity compared with approaching 3% on previous two days. News is getting old and investors focus has moved on. Next milestone is interim results (thanks mac for getting the timing info. from YOO). mac is looking for movement into black - can you substantiate?
Eric

Well im just going by what Durlacher forecast was as far as i can remember,, profit was 500k and turnover was up to 7m but do not take that as fact because my memory is not as good as it used to be .

mac
Thanks for background to forecast which I missed. I don't think this forecast is built into the price. Last year was a loss of 5.4M on turnover of 743K. This year had the effect of the acuisitions of GoPlay (from Sony Pictures) and Fancy a Flutter: I thought I had seen a forecast for the former but can't find it (I share this memory problem!); the latter should contribute 1M. A pbt (obviously nil tax) of 500K would give a high PE but the point of YOO is really the technology research, leadership in a market of huge potential. Any profit should have a very significant effect in boosting the price. I certainly plan to hold until the interims; an investment at the present price is very one-sided (only an up option), with profit-takers out of the way. Wondering about increasing my stake (presently 10% of my portfolio). What do you think as you are sitting on an even better profit?
Eric

Well I feel with sellers mostly out of the way now would be a good time to buy more as you will probably get below the offer price. Over the next couple of weeks you will probably see small price rises leading up to the interims. But this is all my humble opinion.

Channel 4 is planning to launch a range of new digital TV channels as broadcasters position themselves for the anticipated switch-off of the analogue television signal in 2012, amid fears that traditional broadcasters could lose a third of their audiences after switchover.

It has signed an 80m 10-year contract digital transmission deal with Luxembourg-based SES Global, the satellite company that provides the backbone for BSkyB's Sky Digital.

This is the third deal this week between British broadcasters and SES Global. ITV and cable operator NTL have also signed deals with SES to beam more services into digital TV homes, a market that is growing, with 55% of the nation's TV households already having access to digital TV through satellite, cable or Freeview.

Channel 4 is reported to be hiring space on the Astra 2D satellite for about 14 channels. But this number will have to be determined by the extent of interactive services offered, as each of these can demand nearly as much capacity as a broadcast channel.

David Scott, the deputy chief executive of Channel 4, said the deal "will provide Channel 4 with considerable flexibility when considering the expansion and future development of our broadcast services".

We recommend: media.guardian.co.uk (Registration required)

mac
I note that your first post was this time last Friday evening. This has been a very fruitful bb - even those who didn't get in below the current price will not regret it I'm sure. Lets put some targets: 30p+ by the interims; 50p by the finals. These levels have been achieved before when revenue was negligible. From a financial standpoint, you must admire their tactics of buying in profitable revenue (based on a perhaps inflated sp), whilst they proceed with their technological leadership and, whilst not necessarily very profitable, their focus of real effort on the government sector with resultant prestige and technology spin-offs.

Having said that, I went and put the money from some ASOS profit-taking into, pause for breath, earthport (EPO) rather than YOO at 1.08p. The management and TF (for his Shares recommendation at 2.68p) have taken a lot of flak. I believe I have put my finger on a key reason for delay in revenue roll-out and have given these on the EPO bb (532). If you are interested, given your evident comfort with the high tech sector, I would appreciate your feedback, perhaps there rather than here.

Eric

Thanks for info but no spare cash at moment, will keep them in mind though. Perhaps when the spread narrows and I am better fixed money wise, i would certainly have a dabble.

Ample Board.


It was interesting to note that all trades were sales yesterday, but the price did not drop, infact the sell price averaged around 25p, 1p above the bid price, tree shakes the previous day did not work, so by dropping the price, they probably knew they would attract buyers.

An indication that the MM's need stock, and a further rise is certain upon the results being announced, together with some kind of very upbeat statement from our chairman, and another RNS, possibly about IPublic, or maybe something concerning Celador/Whoosh mobile game, lets wait and see, about that one.

It is also very intersting to note that only 20% of the shares are freely available ( and not all of those are freely available from the feelings of holders on this board and advfn, myself included, who will not be letting go), the other 80% being tied up with the directors, Sony, Forsight Technology VCT, and other institutions, so any demand from good news, such as last week, will push the price up quickly, and I personally think,with Yoo's own increasing revenues along with the increases from the aquisitions, the vibes are good for an excellent set of interims, which will make last year at the same time laughable, this alone will be proof as last stated by Dr Sinclair that delivery is taking place, but to add to this we seem to have a second line of development, and business expansion via aquisition, in a fast growing global industry.

I am glad I held out through the price drop, and IMHO all those that did, and kept the confidence will be rewarded.

Regards

Paul

mac (sorry you're mac now, not Paul)

Very helpful analysis of the share-holding. I noted that the volume last Monday was 3.54mill. with even-handed trading about 27p. That's 3% of the equity or 15% of the tradable shares. The mm's have only got a maximum of 500K shares (0.4% of the equity). So, as last year, the price is bound to over-react to buying demand. This suggests that good interim results, rather than having a proprotionate response, could cause the sp to fly before settling back to an intermediate point. At what levels? The only benchmark would seem to be last year - that could be exciting but it will be important to take profits on part of the holding while the opportunity is ripe. I wish I knew which day the interims were to be - given that Alizyme (AZM) interims are on Monday and are at least as deserving for a punt.

Eric

Price back to 20p today on 550K trading volume (still relatively low, only 0.4% of equity). Bears out volatility in sense of large movements on relatively small volumes. Buying to selling 200K to 350K. So, surprising to see such a significant drop. Personally pleased, despite buying at 23P, because it potentially offers additional buying opportunity. However, I am stagging Alizyme through their interims on Monday and hope that YOO interims don't land before I can switch. I am with mac on the buying opportunity. I have negligable doubt that it is a buy or accumulate situation, perhaps then a short-term hold. The volatility makes it attractive for switching in and out, not as a day trader but rather following the price movements and news flow.

Eric

Rumour going round that YOO'S interims are on the 29th September.

mac
Thanks - interim date helpful. Much heavier trading today. Interesting that price held at 20p until 12.24 although buys outnumbered sells by 200K shares (about 40K). By 13.12, the buying price had moved to 26p reflecting further purchase of some 300K shares. Price then held fairly steady with buys and sells balancing. One interpretation wouild be that the mm's only hold of the order of 200K shares in stock, so that any additional demand can cause quite a sharp price revision in order to flush sellers out of the woodwork. Supports view that price could move very rapidly if interims are as good as you expect.

This is the best day's trading since the broadband announcement and suggest buying on anticipation of good interims. Suggest any 'observers' take a stake by Tuesday at the latest.

Eric

Remember interim date is not certain as the 29th, just a rumour, they could even release them tomorrow or Monday.

mac

Thanks but unfortunately the punt fund can't be in two places at once. Time will tell if AZM was right for Monday; I will switch some to YOO then if interims not declared and price hasn't run away. I still have the holding bought at 23p 10 days ago anyway. Here's a wee dram to them anyway!

Eric

mac

How goes it? These Scottish managers are the thing - Souness already sorting my United out. Switched some additional funds into YOO at 24.9p today. Shares pretty firm although volume not particularly high. I see part of the stake as short-term, against the interims, with part being kept for the medium term (meaning a few months), unless the price overshoots on the way up which I suspect it might do.

All the best, Eric

Funny thing Souness's Dad used to stay along the road from my brother in Edinburgh. No nonsense with him though very hard man. I guess everyone one is waiting for the interims. I will be in YOO for at least 18months though may take some profits along the way.