Crown Castle Announces Games Channel For Freeview

WARWICK - Thursday, 22 May, 2003 - Crown Castle International has announced today that YooMedia plc, the interactive TV entertainment company, in partnership with MIETV, will launch the first iTV games channel on Freeview on 23rd May 2003.

MIETV has concluded a carriage agreement for the new channel with Crown Castle UK Limited, owner of the broadcast licence for multiplexes C & D and the UK's leading network infrastructure management company.

The new games channel, called Free2Play, will include a game specifically designed around Channel 4's Big Brother. At launch, Free2Play will be the only iTV games service on the Freeview platform. Free2Play debuts on Freeview with a quiz game based on the Channel 4 Big Brother format. The game will run for the 10-week duration of the broadcast show. Big Brother viewers on Channel 4 can go to the game by pressing the red button at anytime during the run of the show. Viewers will also be able to access Free2Play by selecting Freeview channel number 53 on their remote handset after performing a rescan.

Peter Abery, President and Managing Director at Crown Castle, commenting on the agreement, said: "The agreement with MIETV is a reflection of our desire to offer as diverse a range of content as possible. We are very pleased to welcome them to the Freeview line up of entertainment."

According to Andrew Fearon, COO at YooMedia, Free2Play is unlike competing interactive TV games channels on other digital platforms: "Most other games channels charge players to play. Free2Play, as the name suggests, will be a totally free to play channel available 24hrs per day, 7 days per week. The content will be just as compelling as the pay per play channels, with a minimum of three games available at any one time and the games content being refreshed on a monthly basis".

Matthew Seaman, Freeview General Manager, said, "It's great to be able to offer something totally new - an interactive games channel - to Freeview homes. With Free2Play our range of channels and services now offers something for all the family."

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Notes to Editors

Crown Castle International

Crown Castle International is owner of the broadcast licence for multiplexes C & D and the UK's leading network infrastructure management company. The Company offers near-universal analogue broadcast coverage in the United Kingdom and significant wireless communications coverage to 68 of the top 100 United States markets, to more than 95 percent of the UK population and to more than 92 percent of the Australian population. Crown Castle owns, operates and manages over 15,500 wireless communication towers internationally. For more information on Crown Castle, visit: www.crowncastle.com.

YooMedia

YooMedia plc is a digital TV entertainment company, which provides services including chat, games and dating products. YooMedia's suite of iTV and eTV services and products allow digital network operators and broadcasters to build communities of loyal viewers and establish new revenue streams.

YooMedia works with licensees and publishers to create classic parlour games, multi-player games and real-time arcade action games for interactive TV. YooMedia has the exclusive licence for Tetris across UK digital cable.

YooMedia is an established provider of interactive TV chat, with a variety of messaging applications. The Company currently provides exclusive DTV chat for Sky One, Gamestar and Sky News channels on satellite in the UK. This service is also available to other broadcasters and operators.

Recently, the Company launched an interactive Channel on Telewest digital cable TV called yoome2. The Channel includes the UK's only cable chat service, yoome chat, along with a suite of games (including the first cable launch of Tetris). The Channel also includes competitions, prizes and mobile phone ringtone and logo downloads. The technology developed for the Channel and chat services can also be used as a core framework for similar interactive services by broadcasters and branded accordingly.

YooMedia has signed an exclusive partnership with Dateline to develop and launch all of its interactive dating services on digital television, mobile phones and other wireless devices. The first of these iTV services is expected to launch on Telewest.

YooMedia plc is quoted on the Alternative Investment Market.

www.yoomedia.com

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Katy Howell
Immediate Future PR
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Email: Katy.howell@immediatefuture.co.uk