ITV drops British Comedy Awards after 'phone-in vote con'

Law firm Olswang has already been called in to conduct an investigation into the alleged vote problem, which happened during the 2005 awards show.

ITV refused to give details of the irregularities and said it would not comment further until the investigation was concluded.

A statement released by the broadcaster said: "ITV have today asked media law firm Olswang to conduct an investigation into an issue that has arisen in respect of the British Comedy Awards 2005.

"Pending conclusion of the investigation, broadcast of the British Comedy Awards 2007 will be postponed. ITV will not make any further comment regarding this matter until the conclusion of the investigation."

The irregularities are believed to be related to the People's Choice Award, the only one to be chosen by the public.

Viewers were asked to vote throughout the show for their favourite, and Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway was named as the winner.

The show was broadcast on either side of the 10.30pm news bulletin.

It has been alleged that the final section of the show, broadcast after the news, was taped from 10.30-11pm but shown from 11pm as if it were taking place live.

Viewers were still encouraged to phone in but their votes were worthless because the winner had already been named.

Organisers have said the awards will still go ahead sometime this year and may be broadcast on another channel.

Regular host Jonathan Ross is also booked to present the show, they said.

A spokesman for production company Michael Hurll TV said: "The awards are definitely taking place, Jonathan Ross is committed and the nominations process is getting under way.

"ITV had the broadcasting rights but the awards are now open to other broadcasters."

The Awards are one of the most high profile ceremonies to recognise comedy on television.

The high-profile annual event has previously honoured the likes of Stephen Merchant, Catherine Tate and Russell Brand.

They are the latest casualty of the scandal about phone-ins and competitions on television.

It was revealed earlier this year that some premium rate competitions on GMTV had left callers with no chance of winning because shortlists of potential winners were finalised before lines closed.

GMTV managing director Paul Corley went on the programme to apologise to viewers about the scandal and later resigned.

Other ITV programmes, including X Factor and Dancing on Ice, were also involved.

X Factor was found to have overcharged viewers by a total of £200,000 for votes cast via the red button in its most recent series.

Around 11,500 text votes for ITV1's Dancing on Ice final were not processed properly because of a "technical problem" at the Vodafone network.

ITV1 also apologised after about 10,000 texts for a prize draw competition on Gameshow Marathon were not counted.

And it's phone-in quiz channel ITV Play was scrapped after some of its competitions came under fire for being almost impossible to answer.

The phone-in scandal later became only part of a wider picture of viewers being misled by television programmes, including several on the BBC.

Only yesterday the broadcaster revealed more instances where it had misled the public, including rigging a vote to name the Blue Peter cat.