Orange, Universal Music and Channel 4 join forces to deliver free music and more for the masses

• Orange, 4Music and Universal Music launch first Pay As You Go free music service
• Monkey lets people create, listen to and share playlists on the web and on any mobile
• Customers will have access to hundreds of thousands of songs, free competitions, news, gossip and exclusive access to artists content
• Monkey customers get access to the music service plus a minimum of 300 free texts each month when they top up

Orange today unveils Orange ‘Monkey’, the first Pay As You Go package for the UK market that offers free music to customers when they top up their mobile. Working together, Universal Music, Channel 4 and Orange have developed an innovative pay as you go package that gives customers free and easy access to hundreds of thousands of songs (plus free texts) streamed through any mobile handset and online at www.orange.co.uk/monkey from 30th July.

Aimed primarily at the youth market, Monkey has been created with 16-24 year olds in mind tapping into the elements of teen and ‘twenty somethings’ lifestyle choices. As well as free music, Monkey offers customers free texts, allows for playlists to be shared on social networks, and it delivers great offers from relevant brands direct to their mobile. The free music element of the package fulfils an untapped market that is looking for a low cost, easy access music service without users having to worry about download costs or the functionality of their handset. The dedicated Monkey website aims to create a community where customers can broadcast their individual playlists online and share them with their friends.

With Universal Music’s expertise, Orange has developed a streaming model which allows great interaction with mobile music. As well as giving Monkey customers access to its market-leading catalogue, Universal Music will provide exclusive music, pre-release tracks and other content to the Monkey website such as competitions, artist interviews and playlists – all of which will help to build the Monkey community.

As the most watched music channel in the UK, 4Music delivers targeted access to Monkey’s core demographic with over half of its adult viewers being aged 16 to 34 years. Using a combination of traditional advertising, integrated programming and market leading music editorial expertise, 4Music will promote the monkey service from early September across the Channel 4 portfolio. Online, 4Music.com will promote the Monkey service and music offering, and the 4Music team will be the editorial voice of the official Monkey website which will carry news, artist features, playlists, exclusive content and competitions.

Tom Alexander, CEO of Orange UK said: “Unlike some music services which are either restricted to high-end more expensive handsets or have download costs, Monkey is for everyone. All you need to do is top up to get free music on any handset or online. Orange, Universal Music and 4Music will benefit from the success of Monkey - and each partner will contribute by doing what they do best. Universal Music has the best content and artists; 4Music has the best capability to reach the target audience and has the most respected editorial voice in this space; and at Orange we’ve got a great brand, great distribution and know how to develop and sell innovative mobile propositions.”

David Joseph, CEO of Universal Music UK, said: “We are excited to work with Orange on Monkey, an innovative service which meets the high expectations of today’s young music consumers. Unique partnerships like this are changing the shape of the music industry.”

Andy Duncan, CEO of Channel 4 said: "Aligning our brands in this way works well for Channel 4 and Orange. We have a very strong relationship with young audiences and so can deliver optimum exposure to this key audience for the new Monkey service. And Channel 4 gets to extend its offering into mobile, with an exciting and innovative business model which fills a gap in the market."

Monkey customers also get all the other benefits of being on Orange: 2 for 1 cinema tickets with Orange Wednesdays; a 1 in 3 chance to win great prizes with every top up; £1 towards a new phone with every £10 top up; a free £2.50 overdraft, and cheap calls to your best mates with Magic Numbers.

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Notes to Editors

Product Information

· Monkey customers can access the service on their phones by dialling 247. Customers are presented with a choice of 8 pre-set play lists e.g. R&B, Rock, Pop, Chart and playlists from 4Music. These will be refreshed regularly

· £10 top up gives you 300 free texts and free music. £20 gives you 600 texts, £30 gives you 1,000 texts

· Customers can access the service online by visiting the following site www.orange.co.uk/monkey. Customers can set up 8 of their own playlists on the Music Player and share their unique number(s) with their friends

· Calls cost 20p per minute, 10p per text

· Monkey is packed full of additional features including functionality which allows customers to find out the name of the track they are listening to on their mobiles. The customer just needs to press 5 whilst listening to any track to receive a free text message with the artist name and track title for what they're listening to, plus we save the track in their favourites section on the Monkey website

About Orange

Orange is the key brand of the France Telecom Group, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. With 123 million customers, the Orange brand now covers Internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the Group operates.

At the end of 2008, France Telecom had consolidated sales of 53.5 billion euros (12.7 billion euros for the first quarter of 2009) and at 31st March 2009, the Group had a customer base of almost 184 million customers in 32 countries. These include 123 million mobile customers worldwide and 13 million broadband Internet (ADSL) customers in Europe. Orange is the number three mobile operator and the number one provider of broadband Internet services in Europe and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

In the UK, Orange provides high quality GSM coverage to 99% of the UK population and was ranked number 1 best network for 3G coverage by Ofcom in July 2009. At the end of March 2009, Orange had almost 17 million customers in the UK – 15.8 million active mobile customers and close to one million fixed broadband customers.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Personal Communications Services Limited.

For more information: www.orange.com, www.francetelecom.com, www.orange-business.com

For further information, call the Orange press office on 0870 373 1500 or email: Orangepr@golinharris.com or visit www.orange.co.uk/newsroom

About 4Music

4Music is the most watched music channel in the UK. It is free to air, and part of the Box TV music channel portfolio. Box TV is the Channel 4 and Bauer Media joint venture that operates the channels and has this year has produced hit shows from the biggest names in music from Lady Gaga to Lily Allen.

4Music believes music is all about entertainment, offering exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the biggest names in music, unmissable live performances, video exclusives, up to the minute music news and an eclectic mix of new and classic video content.

4Music also broadcasts the best of music entertainment shows and documentaries from the Channel 4 stable. The channel features both popular and up-and-coming bands and artists, daring to be different as long as it’s all in the name of great popular music.

58% of 4Music’s Adult viewers are aged 16-34.

4Music attracts an average of 11m viewers a month.

About Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is the world's leading music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 77 countries. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, the industry's leading global music publishing operation.

Universal Music Group's record labels include A&M/Octone, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Disa, Emarcy, Fonovisa, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Lost Highway Records, Machete Music, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Philips, Polydor Records, Universal Motown Republic Group, Universal Music Latino, Universal Records South, and Verve Music Group as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalogue of music in the industry, which includes the last 100 years of the world's most popular artists and their recordings. UMG's catalogue is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, its new media and technologies division; Bravado, its merchandising company; Twenty–First Artists, its full service management division; and Helter Skelter, its live music agency.

Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi, a global media and communications company.