ITV Play

ITV Play was a short-lived brand from ITV plc that operated as a strand on ITV1 and ITV2 from March 2006-December 2007, and as a dedicated channel from April 2006-March 2007. The brand was retired following the 2007 British premium-rate phone-in scandal.

It was launched as a standalone channel on Freeview (taking on the slot which was previously occupied by the Men & Motors channel) on 19 April 2006 and started broadcasting on the Sky platform on 24 July 2006.

The ITV Play channel was created in response to and hoping to cash in on the popularity of late night quiz shows on the ITV Network and ITV2 such as Quizmania and The Mint. ITV Play also offered additional gambling services on their website.

It cost at least 75p per call to participate. This charge was made even if the caller was not put through to the studio. A free entry route was available through the website. Users were restricted to 150 calls/web entries in a 24-hour period. At peak times callers had a 1 in 8500 chance of getting through to the studio to play.

Why It Sucked

 * 1) The whole concept of ITV Play was an obvious attempt at ITV to cash in on the Phone-In Game Show craze, similar to Quiz Call and the game show BrainTeaser on Channel 5. This backfired heavily following the scandals.
 * 2) All the shows from this strand and later the channel were only phone-in interactive quiz shows, leaving very little variety no matter what the show was.
 * 3) *Many of them can go too far on the "obscure" rate. During the phone-in scandals, there were complaints made that one of the strand's programmes claimed that "rawlplugs" and a "balaclava" were items a woman would have in her handbag. Really?!
 * 4) **Well, this example led to Ofcom fining ITV for making their quizzes too obscure.
 * 5) The 75p per call rate was made very clear and strict, as viewers were charged for every call they made wherever they were connected to the studio or not, and even if the phone lines were unable to connect, which is nothing more than a borderline scam.
 * 6) The strand was heavily criticised by the CMS Committee, who stated that the nature of the shows was pressure to make more people pay to call in, making it feel like gambling.
 * 7) There were many restrictions put on the number of attempts to call. Only 150 calls could be placed on the channel per day, mean that in a 24-hour period BT landline callers could still spend a maximum of £112.50.
 * 8) *In February 2007, this was reduced to 100 calls per day, so the maximum was £75 a day on BT landlines.

The Only Redeeming Quality

 * 1) Some of the shows were entertaining, in the "So Bad, It's Good" way.