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Match.com UK has launched an interactive channel on the BT Vision IPTV service (Digital Cable). This means almost half a million BT Vision subscribers can now tune into Channel 955 and use the Match.com service to search for singles, update profiles, send winks and for viewing messages. Most of Match.com primary features are available to use through the channel. You also use the same Match.com account as you login with through the website. Not everything can be done through BT Vision though, such as uploading a photo. This can only be done by using a computer or a cell phone.

The article at New Media Age makes it look like this is a free service to cable subscribers. It is unclear at the moment if you can log in as a Match.com paid member on the interactive channel to actually send email messages to other members.

Jason Stockwood of Match.com stated:

He hoped offering the service via TV would make browsing for a potential partner a more social experience compared with the online service, which tends to be done alone.

This is an interesting idea, to make online dating a more social activity. Would you want your friends and/or family to help you favorite and send winks to other singles on a dating site? I think searching for prospects would be fun but, personally I would still want to communicate without someone looking over my shoulder.

To find out more information about this United Kingdom dating site, read our review of Match.com.

White Label Dating announced that they have partnered with the Cosmopolitan magazine website in the UK to offer a dating service for their readers. The link to the new service is found under the "Love & Sex" menu, titled Cosmo Dating on their website. Cosmopolitan magazine target demographic is females aged 24 to 34. This is good news for the White Label Dating Network since it means more female profiles in this age group for their network of dating sites (WLD share profiles between most partner sites). This demographic is usually the one sought after in the dating industry since, where the women are, the men will surely follow.

If the UK Cosmopolitan partnership goes well, I am sure White Label Dating is hoping to partner with the US Cosmopolitan website. White Label Dating is the most popular branded dating service for companies in the UK and I bet they are hoping to repeat this success in North America.

A survey at a UK dating site for single moms and dads found that 92 percent of single parents prefer to date other single parents. 500 members participated in the survey with which the majority listed the reason for their answer being, they have more in common with someone who has similar responsibilities and time commitments.

For the full press release, visit PRWeb and for a list of dating sites for single parents, check out our Single Parents Dating category.

Last year eHarmony.ca had a free communication weekend, on the Canada Day long weekend (see Story - it ran from Sat. June 28 to Tues. July 1). Some of you were wondering if there is a free weekend coming up this year for Canada Day. As July 1st, 2009 falls on a Wednesday, right in the middle of the week and we have had no official word yet, I have a feeling if there is one, it will be combined with eHarmony.com and the U.S. Independence Day holiday on the July 4th long weekend.

Check back with this story Canada, and we will update it as soon as we get more information about if and when there is a Free Communication Weekend.

Update #1: eHarmony Canada is indeed having a Free Communication Weekend. It starts July 2 and runs to July 5, 2009.

Update #2: For those of you looking for eHarmony.com (the US site ), the free weekend is on as well, check out this story for more information.

In the mean time, if you want some further insight on what makes this a popular dating site, read our review of eHarmony.

We just got confirmation that a Free eHarmony Canada Communication Weekend is in the works for this coming Labour Day Weekend. From Friday May 15, 2009 up to and including Monday, May 18, 2009 (Victoria Day) new and existing members of eHarmony.ca will be able to not only review matches for free, but communicate with them as well. As stated in our previous post, FastTrack communication is not included with free weekends.

From our count this is Free Communication Weekend number 17 for eHarmony and as usual this one falls on a holiday long weekend. Last year in May, eHarmony actually had 2 free communication weekends (see Story & Story). So, if they follow the same pattern I would expect a free weekend coming soon for the United States.

Read our eHarmony review for more information on this matchmaking dating site.

UPDATE: According to a post at eHarmony Advice, the eHarmony Free Communication Weekend starts May 15 at 12:01am Pacific Daylight Time through Monday, May 18 at 11:59pm Pacific Daylight Time. That means those of you in other Canadian time zones will have to wait an hour or more. As example, Eastern Time is 3 hours ahead of Pacific Time so the free weekend would start for you at 3:01am EST.

We wrote recently about Match.com selling their European operations to Meetic (see Story). For the sale we knew that Match.com will receive 27 percent share of Meetic plus a 5 million euro note. What we didn't know is, according to Ross Williams, CEO of WhiteLabelDating:

There was a clause in the announcement that didn't make many of the headlines, but I think will tell you the direction IAC is going in: Match has the option to buy Meetic in its entirety in about three years.

This makes things interesting. Before I knew about this piece of information, I had thought Match.com had decided to maybe concentrate on the North American market like everyone else. If Match.com has the option to buy Meetic then this makes more sense in the long run for the two companies. I could never see why Match had decided to get out of Europe since revenue wise they were doing well and, they have numerous other partnerships in places like South America and Asia (therefore they are not just concentrating on North America). If the sale does go through then, Meetic's CEO and founder, Marc Simoncini, will still be the main shareholder with over 20% and 36% of the voting rights.

Visit Mad.co.uk for the full article called Love is in the air.