New Contract
Eckoh Technologies PLC
15 March 2004
15 March 2004
Eckoh Partners with Celador International to Launch the
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Telephone Game
Eckoh Technologies (Eckoh), Europe's leading speech applications service
provider, has teamed up with Celador International to create a telephone version
of the hit TV programme Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Fans of the show can now play their favourite game from any telephone 24 hours a
day with guaranteed prize money available of over £100,000 in cash.
The product has been designed for syndication to telecom operators, media owners
and other distributors and is available exclusively through Eckoh. The game will
also be promoted on the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? TV show from Saturday
13th March ,.
The game launched to the public on Saturday 21st February and will be available
for 3 months. To play the game participants call a premium rate number 09064 72
72 72 (charged at 60p per minute) where they are greeted by the voice of Chris
Tarrant. They face a maximum of 10 multiple-choice questions which they answer
by pressing the relevant number on their keypad as quickly as possible, and just
like the TV game they have the opportunity to use three familiar Lifelines if
they face difficulty.
The questions are tiered into three levels and each day there are cash prizes
awarded to the fastest players who progress through the levels in the shortest
time. Answering the first three questions correctly in the fastest time wins
£100, the first six questions £200, and answering all 10 in the fastest time
wins £300
In addition, a weekly prize of £1,000 is on offer to the fastest overall player
whilst the person identified as the quickest to answer 10 questions correctly at
the end of the tournament will walk-away with £50,000!
Chris Tarrant said, "The new Telephone Game is a fantastic way for Millionaire
fans to play from home, and what better incentive to get those fingers dialling
than £50,000 in cash!"
Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer of Eckoh, commented, "This is such a great
project to have been involved in as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is the
biggest global TV game show brand. We had to make sure that we translated the
same quality experience that people get from viewing the show onto the
telephone, and we feel that we've done that exceptionally well. The reaction
from promoters and players alike has been fantastic"
- ENDS -
For further enquiries, please contact
Eckoh Technologies plc Tel: 08701 100 700
Martin Turner, Chief Executive Officer
Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer
Brian McArthur Muscroft, Finance Director
Celador International
Clare Stewart, Press Manager
Celador International
020 7845 6877
Buchanan Communications Tel: 020 7466 5000
Mark Edwards
Notes to Editors
About Eckoh Technologies:
Eckoh Technologies plc designs, builds, hosts and manages Speech Solutions for
large corporations and organisations using ASR (Advanced Speech Recognition) and
IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technologies. It is a leading UK service
provider and infrastructure owner/operator, and intends to exploit the
anticipated growth in demand for Speech Solutions across Europe.
In January 2003, Eckoh signed a landmark deal to create an exclusive speech
alliance with BT to provide hosted speech recognition solutions to their
corporate client base over the next 2 years. This contract was then subsequently
extended until December 2006. A two-year contract with TD Waterhouse for a
speech recognition share check service was announced by BT and Eckoh in October
2003.
In June 2003 Eckoh enlarged its call processing infrastructure to 7,000 lines
(capable of handling 500,000 calls an hour) by installing another platform into
a BT hosting facility. This created the largest speech enabled call processing
platform in Europe.
Eckoh has secured contracts to supply hosted Speech Solutions to clients
including Virgin Mobile, Centrica, William Hill, Wyevale Garden Centres and the
RNIB.
Eckoh also operates the following businesses:
* IVR - following the acquisition of Intelliplus Group plc in Sept
2003, Eckoh is one of the largest providers of managed IVR and SMS services in
the UK to media clients including the BBC, Channel 4, Chrysalis, Endemol, EMAP,
Johnston Press and Cartoon Network.
* Network Services - under the "Symphony" and "Freecom" brands, Eckoh
supplies fixed line and mobile telephony services, broadband and data services
to SMEs in the UK and Ireland. Following the acquisition of Intelliplus Network
Services now has an SME customer base of over 13,000.
In the year to 31 March 2003 Eckoh Technologies plc generated a turnover of £55
million and had a cash balance of £12m. In December the company announced deals
worth over £6 million covering a range of clients including the Royal National
Institute for the Blind.
Further information can be found at www.eckoh.com.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange