9 Live

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9 Live is a commercial German participation TV channel and launched on September 1, 2001. It originated from a channel called tm3. Most of its programming is lottery and quiz games, in which the viewer can participate over the phone. An English version also broadcast in the UK in late 2004 and early 2005, during E4's downtime hours.

The channel finances itself mainly through money paid for the phone calls. Independently of whether the calling party will have the chance to talk to the quiz host, they will pay 50 euro cent to call from Germany or 70 cents from Austria. The former CEO, Christiane zu Salm, sees the channel as "participation TV" ("Mitmachfernsehen").

The games are legally controversial. In German law, there is the distinction between "Glücksspiel" (gambling) and "Gewinnspiel" (lottery), the latter theoretically being gambling without money being bet. Gambling is not allowed on German television. In court, 9 Live defended itself with the argument that a phone call does not cost more than sending a postcard to advertisement-financed lotteries of magazines and TV-shows, which themselves are considered a "Gewinnspiel".

The total revenue of 9Live was 60.6 million euro in the year 2002 and 78.7 million in 2003. For comparison, during broadcast the channel proudly claims to have paid out close to one million euro in November 2004 alone.

9Live also features a wide range of humorous and comical moderators. One name worth mentioning is Alida Lauenstein, winner of Big Brother Germany and German Playmate of the Year, who can be seen moderating from time to time.

[edit] Criticism

Critics accuse 9 Live of deceiving people about their chances, for example by deliberately keeping the rules of the quiz vague, alternating them randomly and rarely explaining them even if a solution is presented.

The channel attracted attention to itself when it announced a "show for the unemployed", in which the caller had the chance of winning employment. Minister of Labour Walter Riester called the idea absurd and cynical.

There is also criticism over the channel's late night programming, which features soft core pornography and phone sex advertisements. As of 2006 the channel now broadcasts its late night programming from the hours of 2 AM until 6AM.