Dancing On Ice Finale Misses Out On 11,500 Text Votes
Telecoms giant Vodafone has admitted that 11,500 text votes for Saturday’s Dancing On Ice final on ITV1 were not counted due to a technical error.
The votes were not delivered to ITV until Monday morning and customers involved will be refunded the cost of their texts this week, the company said.
ITV has said that these delayed text votes would not have affected the outcome of the show, which was won by hot favourite and former England rugby union international, Kryan Bracken (see Dancing On Ice Wraps Up With More Than 8.6 Million).
Nearly 1.5 million votes were cast for the Dancing On Ice final on Saturday, ITV added, of which around 85,000 are understood to have been Vodafone texts.
“Vodafone UK has confirmed that due to a technical problem 11,500 text votes for the Dancing On Ice final were not delivered to ITV until Monday morning,” the company said.
“These votes represented only a small minority of votes cast by Vodafone customers. All other texts were successfully delivered.
“The Vodafone customers who were affected received a message to tell them that the vote was too late and Vodafone UK will this week be automatically refunding those customers the cost of their text.”
ITV added: “These votes represent less than 1% of votes cast on Saturday night. Vodafone has assured us that this was an isolated problem and they will be giving their customers a full refund.
“With almost 1.5 million votes cast on Saturday night, these lost votes would not have changed the result of any part of the competition.”
This latest embarrassing revelation comes despite the fact that Dancing On Ice‘s phone and interactive services were given the all clear earlier this month by the independent audit of the broadcaster’s participation TV operations (see ITV Review Clears Interactive Quizzes).
A variety of other programmes on most of the major broadcasters have also been involved in phone-in scandals, with flagship BBC One children’s programme, Blue Peter, recently joining the ever-growing list (see Blue Peter Fakes Winner, Joins Phone-In Blacklist).
The unfolding controversy also saw ITV admit to overcharging red button users by a combined total of £200,000 on eviction votes for The X Factor, whilst Channel 4’s Richard and Judy ‘You Say We Pay’ (see Richard & Judy Phone Quiz Controversy Takes New Twist) and BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen also came under scrutiny (see Saturday Kitchen Goes Live After Phone-In Mistake).
ITV Play, the broadcaster’s lucrative quiz channel, has been axed to become ITV2+1 (see ITV Axes Quiz Channel), whilst Five’s Brainteaser was also suspended (see Five Suspends Brainteaser Amidst Phone-In Controversy).
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com