Catch up TV

Episode 01 December 2025

Documentary exploring how our love lives have been transformed by the rise of dating apps beginning with Tinder’s explosive launch in 2012.\n\nIn just over a decade, digital romance has become big business: a global industry worth more than $8 billion, dominated by Match Group, the powerful conglomerate behind 45 platforms, including Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid. With annual revenues around $3.5 billion, Match has reshaped how millions meet, but at what cost?\n\nAs over half of users report dissatisfaction and Gen Z increasingly turns away from apps in search of genuine, offline connections, the film asks serious questions about safety and the ethics of algorithmic love. Has the pursuit of profit overtaken the pursuit of partnership? Have the platforms been designed to keep us swiping and spending rather than finding 'the one'?\n\nFeaturing anonymised interviews with industry insiders feeling compelled to speak out, alongside daters, experts and cultural commentators, this documentary uncovers the hidden mechanics of the modern dating economy and asks whether we’ve been seduced, or trapped, by the swipe.

Source: BBC 1