Classic FM Signs Christmas Deal With Grant’s Whisky

ITV has reportedly suffered a 50% fall in phone votes for its hit programme The X-Factor following the premium-rate phone scandal.

A report in the Daily Record claimed that voting levels have fallen by 50% since last year, with a resulting loss in revenue of around £10m.

A Deloitte report published last month found that some SMS text votes were not counted for the 2005 X-Factor final, although it added that the problems had not affected the outcomes of the votes.

It is understood the fall is partly due to ITV’s decision to stop accepting votes by text message. The X-Factor’ was one of the high-profile TV programmes to become embroiled in the premium-rate controversy. A report by Deloitte, published last month, found “serious technical issues” with the 2005 ‘ The X-Factor’ final, which led to some SMS votes not being counted. The reported drop in votes is not matched by a fall in viewers. This year’s ‘The X-Factor’ debuted in August with 9.5m viewers — up more than 2.5m on last year’s opener. ITV had not returned calls by the time of publication.