ITV Forms Online Partnership With DatingDirect

ITV Sales has secured DatingDirect.com as the exclusive dating partner for itv.com’s new Love section, powering the broadcaster’s latest online brand extension and giving hope to desperate singles nationwide.

Today sees ITV launch itv.com/love where relevant ‘love’ content from programmes such as This Morning, Trisha and a range of high-profile ITV soaps will be collated and linked.

Loveless users of the new section will have the opportunity to find their perfect match using the DatingDirect.com search facility from within the ITV site. Traffic will be lead to an unbranded dating area hosted by Dating Direct, which includes all of its 1.5 million members’ profiles.

Commenting on the deal, Jeremy Rosenberg, ITV Sales’ account manager, said: “DatingDirect.com is a perfect fit with ITV Online and ties in with ITV’s love themed programme content. The new ‘love’ section is perfect for attracting itv.com’s broad user base of over 900,000 monthly unique users to find their true love.”

Darren Richards, chief executive of DirectDating.com, added: “This is a fantastic opportunity for DatingDirect.com to further expand its white label service. The partnership with itv.com will ensure we add to the pool of our ever increasing member numbers, which enables us to continue to provide the leading online dating service for both our white label business partners and our customers.”

The deal follows several other online partnerships secured by ITV Sales recently. Last month the company secured information technology firm BenQ as the exclusive sponsor of its dedicated Euro 2004 website (see ITV Set To Score £6 Million From England Game).

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com

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