$re = '/(\d{2}:\d{2})<([@+]?[^>]*)>(.*)/';
$str = '= 00:00<@billy> text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text
= 00:03<+tom> text text text text text text
= 00:03<somedude> text text';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php