ITV Suspends Premium Rate Phone-Ins
ITV has suspended all premium rate phone-ins and interactive services, and has taken digital quiz channel ITV Play off-air.
This comes after the commercial broadcaster admitted to overcharging red button users by a combined total of £200,000 on eviction votes for The X Factor (see ITV Joins Vote Scandal List For X Factor Overcharging).
It also follows hot on the heels of phone in problems with BBC One show Saturday Kitchen (see Saturday Kitchen Goes Live After Phone-In Mistake) and Richard & Judy (see Richard & Judy Phone Quiz Controversy Takes New Twist).
ITV has asked Deloitte to review its procedures on a show-by-show basis, with the independent auditor understood to have been told to prioritise the station’s high profile shows so that, for example, Dancing On Ice can be broadcast on Saturday.
ITV Play, the digital quiz channel has been suspended as of 0400 GMT with a holding page featuring the message “we hope to be back very soon”.
The Deloitte review, which will be in two parts, covers all premium rate landline, mobile (excluding paid for downloads) and red button use.
The premium rate phone line operator Icstis is currently investigating Saturday Kitchen and The X Factor after ITV said that viewers using their red buttons to vote for performers to be evicted from the last series had been overcharged by 15p, generating £200,000 in extra revenues.
The BBC has said that it will not follow ITV in suspending its premium rate phone lines.
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com