The replacement for ITV Play?

I've been posting to the ITV Play forum and gather from another member that ITV Play will be replaced by 'Bingo'

quoting from the Sunday Express (30/9/07) the post goes

ITV is set to replace its controversial late-night premium-rate phone-in competitions with live interactive bingo TV shows. The scandal-hit broadcaster is understood to be finalising details for the show, which could be announced as early as next month ... To play, viewers would download cards from the internet and use them to play games that would be screened during the evening. The Bingo TV show will replace ITV Play, the firm's discredited late-night phone-in programme which will be off the air by the end of nest year.

This seems to fit in with the recent PartyGaming deal but other forums are taking this story with a pinch of salt.

I'm not sure if this would satisfy viewers of current participation TV on ITV or provide a 'whiter than white' replacement..

Comments or inside news please to ITVPLaySurvey@btopenworld.com

Thanks so far ..

I’m encouraged by the responses so far for the survey I’ve been running and will be following up with those who have kindly said they’ll help me further.

If any one can pass the survey on to those who are so far under represented (perhaps even help them respond) I’d be very grateful. My feeling is, having watched quite a few of the shows that a sizeable part of the audience are ladies who are over 40, these are in many ways not typical internet users and I’m concerned that I might not be getting their views- reports show they are keen online gamers so please respond if you fit this description or if not encourage those who do fit it to respond.

Also of great interest are those viewers who feel that they have been enticed to spend more than they can afford – if you have stories or know people who have please do get in touch (all is confidential). E-mail ITVPlaySurvey@btopenworld.com

Thanks for your help so far and be assured that the findings will be made available to those who are interested but individual responses will remain confidential.

Here’s the link to the survey

Or cut and paste the text below into your browser

http://www.smart-survey.co.uk/v.asp?i=2760yswkw

And here’s a story about the future online presence of similar offerings..

GMTV's massive fine

So far the companies around the ‘phone-ins’ seem to be taking the rap for the deceits and frauds. The Mail on Sunday’s Financial supplement has been consistently anti ITV Play and this week it notes that William Van Rest is ‘still hanging on to job’ he used to be with the rather aptly named Optimistic Entertainment.

News that the company responsible for running the phone ins for GMTV (Opera) was hit by a fine of £250,000 and that GMTV have had a £2m fine imposed on them today is unlikely to make Mr Van Rest feel any more secure at ITV.

Early ITV Play recollections please ..

Finished off my viewing of 18th September show 140 callers in around 4 hours, £3,100 in prize money calls per minute going as low as 73. The big winners were the ladies

I was coming round to think that ITV Play was harmless fun and it may be that now the games are relatively benign but I get the feeling that it was not always so and was interested to find a blog entry from August 2006 and some comments that it had generated here

Perhaps ITV have improved things but how was it when the ‘service’ first started – comments please to ITVPLAYSurvey@btopenworld.com

Getting input.. (and links again)

It’s been gratifying that so many people are able to offer time and advice including people who are not keen on participation TV.

So far I’ve been going through Myspace users, hopefully I’ve not offended too many, I’ll be targeting Facebook next.
A big thanks to Linked in users who have responded with useful tips.
Reports are that ITV is going to improve its programming I’m not sure if this means that there’s no future for ITV Play – let me know your view
ITVPLAYsurvey@btopenworld.com

I don’t think that news of Grade’s bonus will endear him to the employees who are to lose their jobs or shareholders who are awaiting a real improvement on the company’s profitability if though in a year's time things are looking better the cost will be worth it.

And here’s the survey link again or for cutting and pasting..

http://www.smart-survey.co.uk/v.asp?i=2760yswkw

Mr Shaps on ITVPlay

Hot on the heels of results that emphasised the damage suffered by ITV as a result of the ‘premium rate phone call scandals” we’re told by Simon Shaps that ITV Play doesn’t damage the brand.
Speaking at the recent TV get-together in Edinburgh Shaps was unapologetic about the genre.
Alternative voices are less sure of the veracity of the claim made by Mr Shaps.

how to improve your chances of winning

So after a nice holiday I’m back in earnest on the research and have actually started going through the programmes ITV puts out in the participation slot in some detail.

The first ITV play I watched (night of 24th July) clocked in at a little over 4 hours, I was surprised at the number of callers taken on air (214) which averages at about 50 per hour, this gave 5 winners (40 to 1 odds for those who got through) but the number of callers varied between (around) 60,000 per hour at the start when about a thousand calls a minute were coming in to around 6,000 per hour at the end of the programme by my very rough calculation. This equates to a chance of winning between 48,000 to 1 and a much better 4,800 to 1, it seems to me that if you are going to play and want to win you’re better to leave it until the final hour of the programme when the number of calls being made is far fewer.
The total prize money given was £2,750 I’ll try and calculate an indicative sum for the revenue and let you know.

Comments please to itvplaysurvey@btopenworld.com

Poor ITV results

Recent reports around ITVs results include the point that ITV play has not delivered the revenues that were first predicted these were £9m rather than the £27m of the year before
Here’s the Times report on ITV results.
Digital Spy also reports on the issue here.
ITV as a whole has problems beyond the Play channel including its continuing decline in audiences and the effects of the Contract Rights Renewal which was offered up at the time of the creation of a single ITV.

Is a game of chance a lottery ?

One of the key questions around the quiz formats like ITV Play and Quiz Call is are they a lottery - I was interested to see that the mad comments blog has noted that The Gambling Commission is set to rule on this, (good piece here too) the implications are not just the specific late night gameshow ghettos there'll be a knock on to some of those peak time shows too. But figures are that the chances of getting through to some shows were as high as an incredible 5,000-1 at peak times mean that this is an outside gamble with slim chances of winning.

The point (to me though) is What is ITV for is it something more than a vehicle for exploiting broadcasting capacity?

Mr Grade probably needs to re- invigorate the ITV brand and give a mission statement that is clear and inclusive.

Earlier predictions around a privatised Channel Four and a Sky owned Channel Five are looking noticably more likely and a clear differentiation is a goal ITV should aim to convert as soon as it can.

The world of (TV) branding

You might wonder why I’ve decided to look at branding for TV as a subject for research I’ll summarise here

1) TV in the UK was until the mid 1980s characterised as a ‘public good’ rather than a consumer commodity, the powerful and the good administered it and decided the rules that it should play by, strangely they were often the people who viewed it least and considered it little.

2) In the 1980s technology and a government that favoured deregulation (re -regulation?) conspired to change the rules of the game, Sky and BSB saw a new economic opportunity that could be commercialised.

3) The multiplicity of TV channels had a mixture of distinct and not so distinct programming, University Challenge moved from ITV (Granada) to the BBC, reruns of The Avengers appear on the BBC, Men Behaving Badly moved from ITV to BBC. ITV and BBC followed the Channel 4 model and moved from being a straight broadcaster/producer to a broadcaster, producer, publisher commissioner. UK Gold and similar re packaging channels became common .

4) New technology emerged that further blurred the origin of content people watched BBC content as they wished via Sky plus.

So where does ITV stand as a broadcaster and a brand – ITV play was launched as a part of a multi-channel answer to BBC and Sky offerings or was it just a method of creating a new revenue stream?
Does ITV Play fit with a historic public service broadcasters’ programming treasures such as Brideshead Revisited, World in Action or The Prisoner?

Who better to tell us than the viewer?

The research seeks to determine what the ITV Play project tells us about ITV as a brand – can it use the window of opportunity around the remaining days of bandwidth scarcity to ensure its future?

If this resonates with you in any way drop me a line at ITVPlaysurvey@btopenworld.com and I’ll be happy to consult with you, I’m particularly interested to hear from

* Viewers and participants
* People in the broadcast industry and those working on participation content,
* Brand consultants,
* And those working on regulatory issues (ICSTIS and OFCOM)

The (re) Search continues

More on ITV Play research..

Rather pleasingly I got some assistance via my Linked in request. One with some ideas and input the other a guy kind enough to have a dry run on the questionnaire.

I also now have 2 further books to help with the branding angle – No Logo and A Preface to Marketing Management both via the rather fantastic Bookmooch
Views on ITV Play and Participation TV?
Please e-mail ITVplaysurvey@btopenworld.com

Survey

ITV Play survey and research into participation TV..

I’m working on a project to establish a little more about people’s reactions to ITV Play in its various forms.

Do you enjoy watching these channels – is it just a bit of fun?

Have you taken part in any of these games?

Do you feel strongly about these sort of channels/games?

Is it ethical?

If you want to be part of the research with a chance to win from the prize draw (including radios and clocks) please e-mail me at ITVplaysurvey@btopenworld.com

Play no more

ITV Play has gone – its due to replaced by ITV2+1 (a channel that is a 1 hour delay of ITV2), the story is that this is a result of a 'Spectrum review' it seems that the channel is a holding operation and given time a commercially supported channel will fill the Freeview, cable and DSAT slot, now I’ve said before that the channel should go to an ITV news perhaps with other factual content, but it seems Movies is a possible, which could irritate its partner Sky.

ITV is saying that the audit carried out on Play was positive but presumably they don’t think that a participation channel fits into its bouquet or is not worth the hassle and damage to the ITV brand as a whole.

Pester calls

I missed a call today ah I thought at least they haven’t withheld the number, I googled the number and found that it was likely to be someone trying to do me a deal on my mobile, thank goodness I missed it and perhaps someone can stop these intrusive timewasters?