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Phone-in probe clears late-night quiz
Last updated at 11:38am on 12.03.07Late-night quiz strand ITV Play will return to ITV1 after getting the green light in the independent review into TV phone-ins, it was announced today.
On Saturday, the semi-final of Dancing On Ice, featuring Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, was broadcast on ITV1 after it was cleared in the probe.
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But money-spinning digital phone-in channel ITV Play, which earned £20 million in its first year for ITV, has been more controversial.
The digital quiz channel is still being investigated as part of the independent review.
But the strand screened on ITV1 and ITV2 late at night will return to the terrestrial channels after being cleared.
Phone-in quizzes have been criticised for enticing viewers to call premium-rate numbers, costing 75p at time, with little chance of getting through.
ITV Play's Quizmania programme, which included a balaclava and Rawlplugs in a test of 12 things you are most likely to find in a woman's handbag, was censured by Ofcom earlier this year.
Chancellor Gordon Brown has ordered a Treasury investigation into whether such quizzes should be rebranded as lotteries and regulated accordingly.
MPs recently warned that contestants on phone-in TV quiz shows were at risk of being "ripped off" by premium-rate fees and unfair questions.
ITV was said to have been facing losses of £1.5 million a week because of its decision to suspend all premium-rate interactive services.
Quizzes on This Morning will also return, ITV announced.
