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://digitalhollywood.com/%231Media2005/Media05ThursdayThree.html

Thursday, February 10
12:30 PM - 1:45 PM
Session A:
Digital Cable & Satellite Television Strategies: Channel Launches, SVOD-VOD, HDTV, International and Interactive
With DTV having passed the threshold of consumer acceptance, reaching over 40 million homes, the consumer is now first experiencing what the future of cable and satellite programming is all about. A decade ago, industry leaders speculated on the future and market value of the 500 channel universe and now it is here. With DTV, HDTV and broadband rolling out in communities across the country, the opportunity to innovate, to offer unique and exciting new channels and subscription and VOD packages will be the ongoing challenge for the industry. The entire universe of basic and pay services will be up for grabs in the coming five years. The combination of new technologies, new services, new partnerships, content innovation, aggressive marketing, not to mention new investment will remake the landscape of home entertainment.
Mona Abutaleb, Executive Vice President, New Media and Network Services, Discovery Networks, U.S.
Richard Siderman, Managing Director, Credit Analyst, Telecommunications and Cable Group, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services
Judith Pless, Senior Vice President, Digital Media Group, Showtime Networks Inc.
Mitchell J. Weinraub, Senior Director, New Media Initiatives and Implementation, Comcast
David Docherty, Chief Executive, YooMedia
David Asch, Senior Vice President, Programming, iN DEMAND Networks, LLC
Marc Scarpa, Producer/Director, Chair, Producers Guild of America, New Media Council NY Committee, Moderator

This article is worth re-posting for the newer posters here, that may not have seen this article a couple of months back - A good insight the forethought and respect that David Docherty holds in the world of Broadcasting:-

Analysis - Profile - The man who sees the future.
Susan Thompson
16 December 2004 16:40

Under David Docherty, new media's leading visionary, Yoomedia's turnover is rocketing and the company's starting to look like a serious interactive rival to BSkyB.

David Docherty, Yoomedia's chief executive, is something of a media clairvoyant. Even BBC director general Mark Thompson, and last week the busiest man in the industry, took the time to tell Broadcast why he still regularly rings his old colleague for a forecast. "What he is thinking about now, the rest of us will all be thinking about in three or four years' time," Thompson says. Alan Yentob, the BBC's creative director, adds: "David has always been on top of new technologies. It is uncharted territory and you need foresight to see and think ahead. He is very good at imagining the future." It's an interesting insight into Docherty, the former BBC and Telewest executive, who this month orchestrated Yoomedia's 28m acquisition of the Digital Interactive Television Group (DITG) and The Gaming Channel (TGC), the company behind betting service Avago and William Hill's betting channels. The group is now the biggest interactive TV company after Sky and the only one to operate its services on all platforms - satellite, Freeview, ntl and Telewest. It will focus on gaming, dating and chat and the red-button technology services that were provided by DITG. As an enlarged entity, Yoomedia has increased its annual turnover from around 300,000 to more than 60m. Not a patch on Sky's 300m plus turnover but, according to Mathew Horsman, director of research at consultancy Mediatique: "Watch this space." In the next year alone, Docherty hopes to launch at least one channel - "a dating channel, because that would complete our set" - and expand into the US. "It's a few years behind us in interactive TV so if you are seen as being one of the leading players here then you have a market waiting for you over there." For Docherty, all of this can't happen quickly enough. This is a man who, after all, has been imploring people to jump on the interactive bandwagon for the best part of 10 years. "I was in the BBC when nobody cared about digital and the possibilities of interactive TV. I cared about it from 1994. John (Birt) was great about the internet in 1996 but not digital TV," he says. It was not until 1998, when Docherty was scheduling BBC1 and BBC2 as deputy managing director of television and director of new media that he said to his then boss, Will Wyatt, that they should get digital going. "So we created a team made up of producers such as Roly Keating and said we want to create a raft of TV channels. "We launched UKTV and all the BBC digital channels. I came up with the idea for the children's channels CBeebies and CBBC - it was a fantastic time. We also did BBC Choice. My original vision for it was to be interactive. I had convinced John Birt to sign it off and then the techies turned round and said that they couldn't do it yet!" Thompson puts Docherty's work at the BBC into context: "So many of the things that TV is now centring on - the new digital channels, the idea of interactivity and using interactive television to build beyond the main channels - a lot of this thinking was first developed by David. He was ahead of his time in many respects." This reputation is also undoubtedly why Docherty led one of the hypothetical pitches this month for Ofcom's proposed public service publisher (PSP). Docherty's proposed brand "Six" was the perfect opportunity for him to let the creative juices flow. It was also a release: "I was doing the PSP when I was doing the (Yoomedia/DITG) deal. It took me out of the grind of working through the detail and I liked the idea of doing my own quixotic bid." Docherty, who's writing his fourth thriller and is learning to play the piano (how does he fit it all in?) says he's "terrified, even petrified" of regret. "I'm 48 and I hate the idea that I'm going to get to 65 and think: 'If only I'd written that novel or if only I'd learnt how to play the piano'." Yet he is happier now than he has ever been. As interactive TV begins to come of age, it looks as though this innovative Scot is coming of age as well. "If one was doing a profile on David 15 years ago one would have heard accusations of arrogance, an absolute ability to believe in one's own rhetoric," says David Kogan, chief executive of Reel Enterprises and one of Docherty's PSP teammates. "Certainly in the past four or five years there has been a radical change there - he has learnt to listen a lot more." The turning point, says Docherty, was breaking free from the BBC in 2000. Persuaded by his friend and new chief executive of Telewest Adam Singer, Docherty made the move into the commercial world as managing director of broadband at the company. He describes it as being like the "Wild West" compared with the BBC - and for the best part of two years he championed a series of content projects including "Living Health", an NHS-backed interactive content pilot. His move into the commercial world was rewarded when Yoomedia executive chairman Dr Michael Sinclair offered him the role of chief executive. Adam Singer, now a member of the Ofcom content board, says: "David was first an academic and then he was a BBC person. Telewest allowed him to stop being a public servant and reinvent himself as a commercial person. He did get a reputation in the BBC of being quite angular but at Telewest he worked very hard at being a team player." "And," adds Thompson, "when you add that commercial experience he has now picked up, it looks like he is going to be an unstoppable force, really."

Source:broadcastnow.co.uk

Regards

300 million budget per annum for Public TV service - Yoomedia already took part in a mock bid for this with other partners in recent times - the presentation was headed by our David Docherty, I have not yet seen the result of the mock bid, that is, if it does get published, any way, here is some info:-

from:- http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=3912

UK communications regulator Ofcom has called for the setting up of a new Public Service Provider (PSP) which would distribute TV programmes in a digital format through broadband lines, networked PVRs, and mobile networks, as well as more conventional TV distribution systems.

And it has proposed funding of 430m (300m) a year and that would include the commissioning of TV programmes, and Ofcom said it would be able to spend as much as 290,000 (200,000) for each hour of content it created.

The aim would be to compete with the BBC and other publicly funded TV, to provide high-quality content, and instead of a 24-hour TV channel, it should aim for about three hours of programming per day.

Content of that quality could eventually be made available internationally on a pay per view basis. The PSP would be different to existing broadcasters. Inevitably, in its early years in the transition to digital, much of the PSP's digital content would be more likely to resemble traditional TV programmes, but it would not be a TV channel in the traditional sense, nor would it publish books, magazines or newspapers (as the BBC has done). There should be a series of public bids to run the PSP in the UK, but it should not be awarded to the BBC, insisted Ofcom.

Ofcom said it would not rule out carriage arrangements whereby the PSP secured agreements to distribute publicly funded material on analogue TV before digital switchover. Of course, it is primarily seen as a shortcut to both digital TV programming and internet delivery.

If Ofcom gets this original idea off the ground, there is a good chance that other European countries with prominent public service broadcasting commitments, might also adopt it.

End of text

And here is the details of Yoomedia's mock bid - note comments at the end - Yoomedia's proposal was one of the most exciting:-
PSP proposals revealed
Emily Booth
03 December 2004 12:33


Discovery Europe, Fremantle, BT and The Science Museum were among the consortia members at Ofcoms hypothetical PSP pitch yesterday.


Discovery Europe, Fremantle, BT and The Science Museum were among the consortia members at Ofcoms hypothetical PSP pitch yesterday.

The presentations were led by Human Capital, Yoomedia and Spectrum Strategy, and all mentioned Channel 4 as a potential partner.

Shadow tender presentations were made to an expert panel - chaired by Adam Singer, who sits on Ofcoms content board of Tim Gardam, former Channel 4 director of programmes, David Chance, chairman of TopUp TV, and Joyce Taylor of Mersey TV.

Human Capital led a consortium of The Science Museum and distribution partner BT. Its main proposal was to help publicly-funded institutions such as museums, galleries, state education and the NHS to increase the value for money they provide to tax payers.

This would be achieved in three key ways: using C4s experience as a commissioner of television and interactive content; letting institutions and individuals create content for every platform using BT rich media; and using digital technology to transform the delivery of publicly-funded services.

In response, David Chance praised the proposals idea of logging into the existing asset base. Tim Gardam made the point that he didnt know where the creative centre of the proposal was, although he added: "The idea of a library of material is an excellent one."

Yoomedia proposed the brand Six, backed up by a team consisting of BT, Telewest, Reel Media, Talkback Thames, Thinner Media and Accenture. Its premise was that the PSP should be "dedicated to innovative production, aimed primarily at marginalized but significant minorities in the UK and distributed on all digital and broadband platforms."

It would bring together self-organising communities or Tribes to allow "broader innovation and representation of more diverse talents". These tribes would do things such as vote for commissions and how funds should be distributed. 250 million would be spent on programming, including a dedicated fund of 30 million for "self-commissioning of content".

C4 would have access to all of Sixs content for free, but it would have to commit to a minimum number of hours of content from the fund each year to run in peaktime.

Joyce Taylor praised the public access part of Yoomedias proposal. Gardam said he liked it "a lot", but questioned its scale and whether it provided enough direct competition to the BBC.

The Spectrum Strategy-led consortium, which included Fremantle, Discovery Europe, Vodafone, Bulldog Communications and Vision Architects, came up with the brand name Origin8. Its PSP offering would aim to be "all-original", innovative, creative and risk-taking "in ways commercial broadcasters cannot afford to be".

There would be two strands of content: high quality content, "which is under-provided by the market"; and local targeted content. The budget breakdown would see 211 million spent on content, and would include 12 local TV stations, 12 local portals and 40 websites.

Up to one hour per day of Origin8s content would be showcased in a regular peak-time slot on C4. There would also be cross-promotion of content and services between Origin8 and C4.

In response, David Chance said: "It was the safest proposal weve seen. I commend it." Gardam agreed: "It was the most conservative of the pitches and therefore the most likely to get commissioned," but he added that he wasnt quite sure what it was doing that was new.

In his closing remarks, Ofcoms Ed Richards explained that several key themes, such as distribution and communities, had emerged, in particular the relationship to C4, which "we will have to look at carefully."

On funding, Richards said: "It is a challenge, but frankly it is a challenge that already exists. It is not unique to PSP it washes across the whole broadcasting industry."



Responses from the industry:

Peter Cowley, director of interactive media, Endemol UK

The strengths of all the proposals were that the groups had clearly put a great deal of work in to the idea of creating a PSP, giving Ofcom a free brainstorm from the great and the good of the TV industry. The weakness of all the proposals was that they were under represented by non-broadcast publishers, such as magazines, mobile and online portals and content creators. David Dochertys group was my favourite proposal his team was the only group that showed they had an understanding of how the digital publishing world may be in the years to come.

Andy Duncan, Channel 4 chief executive

A lot of the ideas and thinking was stimulating.

Jonnie Turpie, executive chairman, Maverick Television

Each proposal held valuable insights into the way forward and together they point to the complexity of Digital PSB and that we do not have the PSP model just yet. As Ed Richards said there is a lot of hard work, thinking and planning ahead, but it is absolutely worth it to get PSB in the digital edge.

John McVay, Pact chief executive

You wouldnt say any one was it, but there were elements of each of the proposals that were interesting. Overall Origin8 seemed to be the most worked through proposal.

Alex Graham, chief executive, Wall to Wall

I thought the third pitch [Spectrum] was the most intellectually coherent and well thought-out but also the most conservative and raised most questions about why wed need a completely new organization to do stuff which Channel 4 and the BBC are capable of doing already. Yoomedia's was the most exciting pitch because it genuinely tried to engage with developments outside the mainstream media (file-sharing, blogging etc.) though I think the purpose of the organisation was not at all thought through. I thought the first proposal [Human Capital] was disappointing for the same reasons - it appeared to be a very paternalistic, almost pre-Reithian approach which failed to engage with what audiences are currently doing and watching.


Source:broadcastnow.co.uk

I would highly recommend all investors to subscribe to www.broadcastnow.co.uk - it is well worth the money, you also get a weekly paper.

Anyway, fantastic news that Yoomedia should be considered for the PSB - it shows what respect they have gained as an iTV provider - I am sure what ever happens with the PSB - they will be involved in someway

Regards

Hello again folks, I'm still keeping a beady eye on this and I see that I was right to bale and put my remaining dosh into topping up my SEO. I've got my YOO losses back already and am overweight on SEO due to performance (rather than malnouriushed due inconsideration of company directors). SEO recently raised 4m without serious consequences for existing long-term shareholders, no major dilution or heavy losses, temporary drop not helped by shorting & on we go again. Take note YOO, it could have been oh so different!!!
Saw 20p for YOO the other day and now back to 17.5p, this may take a while to take-off but for what its worth, I still think will be a winner long term, maybe my fingers will have recovered from the burns to get in on YOO again but once bitten!!! On the other hand, I may have made such good profits in six months to put a bit back into Yoo at less than 20p!! I have been enthusiastic about SEO throughout some difficult times and am now being rewarded so Good Luck with YOO and well done for sticking by something you clearly believe in.

mac

A fascinating post and thanks for it. It appears to have been a think tank for ideas rather than more formal bidding for a contract. Good to see YOO leading a prestigious looking team. The money in the Public sector looks good too. I wonder where you, and iPublic, expect YOO to be at the end of the year: primarily in terms of development of services; we should get the EVO view on the finances before too long, hopefully.

Eric

News from BSKYB - actively promoting Sky Active interactive TV as an alternative to normal TV - also interesting to note that Sky Active is available free of any subscription - another good case of Yoomedia services being plugged by a third party = lower marketing cost for Yoomedia, with the potentail to reach over 7 million households, read on:-

from:- http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=4484

UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB has today unveiled a re-design of its interactive services portal, Sky Active. The new format makes greater use of video and original editorial content in order to create a magazine-style channel that offers on-demand entertainment and information as an alternative to conventional television.

Sky Active is available without subscription to around 7.4m digital satellite households and, together with games channel Sky Gamestar, has a weekly reach of around 1m individuals. By creating greater visual appeal and improved usability, Sky aims to encourage more frequent visits and greater usage of Sky Active's existing range of services.

The principal enhancements to Sky Active include the introduction of a video-based "front page" with an schedule of short programmes produced by a new, dedicated editorial team.

Content will be updated daily and changed over the course of the day to appeal to the differing audiences for daytime and evening television.
Other changes include the introduction of a "contents page" in the form of a 16-screen video mosaic, which is intended to provide faster access to Sky Active's different services as well as links to new features pages, dedicated to topics such as "Health and Lifestyle", "Puzzles & Jackpots" and "Friends, Dating and Chat". Each of the new sections will feature original editorial content created by the Sky Active editorial team and popular columnists.

The magazine-style concept of the new Sky Active is a product of extensive customer research into why consumers choose to interact with the television. The result is intended to be an editorially-led interactive destination that is designed around the needs of the different audiences that use interactive services, particularly during the peak usage periods of daytime and the late evening.

End of story

Excellent news for Yoomedia, especially as it has even more presence on Sky Active with the recent DITG takeover

Regards

More digital switchover dates announced in other European Countries

http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=5204

More potential Yoomedia partners and end users

Regards

More mobile phone technology, you could see an interactive version of You Have Been Framed happening here - ie, send in your mobile video during the show, and the best video wins a prize - something I am sure Yoomedia's timestamping technology would allow:-

from:- http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=5373

Norwegian television viewers can now send in video clips from their mobile phones and have them shown on national TV via TV programme Svisj, an entertainment show aimed at youngsters on the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) network - the first broadcaster in Europe to provide such a service.

NRK is considering employing the technology in other programme formats in various categories such as entertainment, sports and news. When newsworthy events occur, any phone with a built-in camcorder can provide video coverage to the broadcaster.

"This means that we have thousands of latent video reporters all over the world," said Gunnar Garfors, director of mobile services at NRK Division of Developments, "and Norwegians take up new technology very early, so mobile videos will be commonplace on TV in a few years' time."

NRK charges 2.50 for each video that is sent to Svisj, which airs on NRK2. At present, there are 350,000 phones on the Norwegian market capable of providing video clips. NRK worked with telco Teletopia on the technical solution for the service.

End

More proof that in time, TV and Mobile are going to work hand in hand for a true interactive experience - and Yoomedia are well and truly placed to take advantage of these new broadcast mediums - also notice, that more and more European Countries are now experiencing interactive services

Regards

Today opens with a wave of sells. Are they mad, or are we? I just cant understand why anyone would want to sell at this price, other than that you'd been in for a while and just had enough, but even then I would be averaging down rather than ditching them.

Snap Chad...the potential of Yoo is huge I think they are mad to sell!
Di

A lot of people have been mislead based on what has been posted on these boards and it is there own fault for not doing their own research. Lets explain the downside for those who have chosen to turn a blind eye:

1) A rumor was started about 2 weeks ago about the overhang being cleared, this was a rumour and was incorrect, the over hanging stock exceeds 80m shares.
2) The competition to all of yoomedias companies is huge, there are 100s of online gaming, dating, intereactive tv, etc companies that provide the same services what this means is that yoo are not the only company providing these services.
3) The many aquisitions and expanded overheads have been massively costly & I predict this company to show some massive losses, these will be reported in good time.
4) The ordinary share holder is treated with the utmost disrespect that has ever been witnessed.

People you need to realise there is a team of rampers who are work together across some of the bulletin boards & attacking any people who have questions or opinions that this team believe could expose yoomedias potential weeknesses - it is tantamount to extortion.

I am telling you to do your own research and keep in mind how this company treats its ordinary share holders.

Good luck.

poes

poes

There do certainly appear to be some posters here with lots of egg on their faces. LOL

'A lot of people have been mislead based on what has been posted on these boards and it is there own fault for not doing their own research.'

Well my research is that i work in this industry and i am buying .

Good for you Nick B, plus if you work in the industry tell these idiots what is what.
Poes and Gull I expect you to eat your words when YOO comes good and it will. 100's of competitors Poe...what rubbish much of the stuff Yoo has cannot be achieved by others, plus they have fingers in many pies and contacts in all the right places. You both must have a hidden agenda to talk such rubbish.
If this share is not 1 in 1 year I will eat my hat!
Di

Buy Dynamite Buy!

Gull,

Some may say you speak Gull-Shit!!!!!

Gull/poes

A friend of mine has performed a 'trace' on you and your details are identicle. Why do you bother?

Why post using muliple identities? In my opinion, this brings into question your intellect and maturity. Do you really believe people don't know?

I am aware of all the user names you have used.

I think The Gull suits you best, so perhaps stick with the one identity?

iPublic
Your friend has missinformed you.
Thought you would appreciate some discount? And who knows you may even get more discount?

Whatever.....