Transcript: Dating on Demand

This is a partial transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," February 11, 2005, that was edited for clarity.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Are you tired of competing for someone's attention a hot, overcrowded bar? My next guest has the newest hot spot to pick up a date: your couch.

Joining me now with all the details is Dave Watson. He's the executive vice president of operations at Comcast.

So Dave, you should probably quickly tell us why it's not exactly your couch, but what is it?

DAVE WATSON, EVP, OPERATIONS, COMCAST (CMCSA): It's your television, which everybody loves. So that's why we're so excited about this.

CAVUTO: All right. So what is it?

WATSON: Well, Dating on Demand is the combination of video on demand, an interactive two-way service where you can call up programs at your leisure, pause, rewind, and an online dating service. So you can watch video profiles of local singles and contact them if you want.

CAVUTO: All right. So these people have how long to sort of talk about themselves?

WATSON: It varies. It's typically between three to five minutes and the — that's why this is so fun and interesting — that it is video. It's on television. And you get to see the nonverbal nuances. It truly is entertainment television.

CAVUTO: All right. So they're dressed. They're not doing anything weird, right?

WATSON: That's correct.

CAVUTO: OK. And they're not saying anything weird. So this isn't like a Norman Bates kind of a deal, right?

WATSON: No, it is edited, and it has clearly standards that are appropriate. But it is fun and entertaining.

CAVUTO: What is this, like "American Idol"? They've got to sell themselves in three, to four, five minutes, right? What do you recommend these guys do?

WATSON: You know, it's been fascinating. We rolled this out in Philadelphia first. And we had — and really with no advertising, no promotion, really, and just in Philadelphia, since August of last year, we've had about a million views so far.

And what people do is they go on and they talk about themselves. They tell a story. They tell a joke. They talk a little bit about their background. And at times it can be riveting.

CAVUTO: How much are you making on this?

WATSON: Well, our focus is digital cable. And digital cable is an enormous part of our growth story. And digital cable varies anywhere between $9 to $15 for a subscription on top of your normal cable rates. So this video on demand functionality, of which we have a lot of other viewing options besides Dating on Demand, but about 90 percent of all of our video on demand is free.

CAVUTO: So the guy who are doing it — let's say the guys, men and women who put themselves on the air, how much are they paying? Or is it free for them?

WATSON: It's free for them.

CAVUTO: Really?

WATSON: It's free for them.

CAVUTO: If they hooked up with somebody, can they call you back and say, "All right, Dave, take my video off. I've found my significant other"?

WATSON: You know, they can contact us anytime and ask to be removed for sure.

CAVUTO: Right. Have you seen any people on who scare you?

WATSON: There have been entertaining ones for sure.

CAVUTO: You're being a gentleman.

WATSON: Mildly frightening, I would say. They're very entertaining.

You know, our video on demand usage in general has been just astounding.

CAVUTO: Right.

WATSON: And this just adds to it. And what we found also short form is interesting. People like to watch, you know, TV on their terms and things like NFL replay, a 10-minute version of a game, or these video profiles of singles are just quick hits, very entertaining, and it just demonstrates why we did 72 million video on demand views this past January.

CAVUTO: All right. Dave Watson, thank you very much. Executive vice president of operations over at Comcast.

WATSON: Thank you.

CAVUTO: Should be interesting to see what happens after this weekend.

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