- ITV Play
ITV Play was the brand name used for phone-in shows on British television network,
ITV until December 2007.The brand was launched on
April 1 ,2006 , the day thatITV launched the game show "The Mint". This was broadcast alongside the pre-exsiting popular phone-in show "Quizmania ". The ITV Play channel was launched onApril 19 ,2006 , and closed onMarch 13 ,2007 . "Make Your Play" was the last ITV Play show to be broadcast, with the final edition being aired onDecember 23 ,2007 .Former shows
Quizmania is the only ex-ITV Play show airing at the current time though it is no longer running under the ITV Play brand.
Quizmania
"
Quizmania " was the first show of its kind to air on the ITV Network. It was presented byGreg Scott ,Debbie King ,Lee Baldry and others. The success of this show was one of the main reasons ITV started the ITV Play brand. The last episode shown on ITV Play aired on January 14, 2007. Large fan support for the show caused "Quizmania" to be relaunched onJuly 17 2008. It has returned as an online-only programme and is no longer under the ITV Play brand.Make Your Play
"
Make Your Play " was a live, interactive quiz show, showing on theITV Network from Monday to Saturday after midnight. The show was launched on FridaySeptember 29 ,2006 on ITV and ITV Play. Both "Make Your Play" and "Glitterball " alternated their days of broadcast, until the latter ended in September.Ben Baldwin ,Zö Christien , Yolly Koppel,Charlie McArdle andRuss Spencer were the team of presenters.Other Shows
"The Mint" kicked off the ITV Play brand showing alongside "Quizmania". "The Mint" ended in February 2007, being replaced by "
Glitterball ". For programmes shown only on the ITV Play channel see here.Criticism and closure
ITV Play's shows attracted significant negative publicity for the group as a whole, at first for the perceived poor quality of the shows provided, but more was to come when several British TV companies were caught up in a series of scandals related to the manipulation of phone-in quizzes. [cite news
title = Impossible phone-ins cut off
publisher = MediaGuardian (Free subscription required)
date =April 23 ,2007
url = http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2063753,00.html
accessdate = 2007-09-12]The ITV Play channel was axed shortly afterwards but programmes retained on the ITV Network after midnight. It was announced on
September 12 ,2007 that ITV were to close the ITV Play brand and its shows on the ITV Network 'by the end of 2007'. [cite news
title = ITV Play programming to be 'phased out'
publisher =Digital Spy
date =September 12 ,2007
url = http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a75509/itv-play-programming-to-be-phased-out.html
accessdate = 2007-09-12]The final edition of "
Glitterball " was broadcast on theSeptember 30 ,2007 . "Make Your Play" was then extended to 6 nights a week, until the closure of the brand onDecember 23 ,2007 .The recently relaunched ITV Play website was renamed as ITV Games in September, with the ITV Play brand now only used for itv.com's Bingo, Casino and Poker websites.
ITV Play on digital channel ITV2 ended at the start of November, 2007.
References
External links
*itv.com|id=play|title=ITV Play
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