Companies: ECK   

Speech application service provider Eckoh, a Growth Company Investor recommendation at 6.5p back in October 2002, has been appointed as 'interactive telephony' partner for ITV. From 1 March it will provide the UK's biggest commercial TV network (formerly Granada and Carlton) with interactive telephony services in a revenue sharing deal lasting at least a year. The deal gives ITV access to Eckoh's sophisticated call processing platform, the largest in the country, which is able to support services like votes, polls and competitions. The platform also provides for new technologies like speech recognition, which gives ITV the chance to enhance new programming concepts still in development. Nik Philpot, chief operating officer, explained new formats could include name and address recognition in phone competitions. Eckoh builds and hosts speech solutions using 'Advanced Speech Recognition' and 'Interactive Voice Response' technologies. Having taken out Intelliplus in September, the company is now one of the biggest managed IVR and SMS service providers in the UK. In the year to March 2003, Eckoh lost £9.1 million pre-tax on £55 million turnover. For the current year, analysts are predicting a 'modest profit'. If you bought on our advice, keep holding.