Quiz Call
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Quiz Call | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Genre | Live, studio and phone-in quiz show |
| Creator(s) | 9Live |
| Starring | Various Presenters |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Ostrich Media (owned by iTouch) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Five, Five US and Five Life |
| Original run | 2005 – Present |
Quiz Call is a phone-in quiz show, produced by Ostrich Media (owned by iTouch) for Five, Five US and Five Life.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Launch
Quiz Call was launched as a standalone participation television channel in August 2005 on the Freeview and NTL platforms, and launched on the Sky Digital platform shortly afterwords.
The show encourages viewers to enter by calling a Premium-Rate telephone number or for free via their website. At the time of launch, the call cost was £0.60 from a BT land line but increased to £0.75 in the Summer of 2006. All calls are charged whether the call is successful or not.
On 22 April 2006, the channel made its debut on analogue television when it aired overnight on Five.
In June 2006, Quiz Call had a slight revamp. They replaced half of the original set with a purple and gold themed set. This set was used mainly as their set for use when broadcasting on Five. The graphics also changed at this time.
On 1 September 2006, Quiz Call celebrated its first birthday with a 41 Hour Marathon Live Broadcast giving viewers the chance to play for a Jackpot of £100,000 by guessing a 4-digit combination.
[edit] Sale
On 19 October 2006, Channel 4 announced they would be selling Ostrich Media and announced the sale of Ostrich Media to iTouch Media on 3 November 2006[1]. The sale included the Quiz Call channel, its slots on NTL and digital satellite, as well as the company's back room technology including its customer relations management capability.
The deal did not however, include the slot on Freeview, and since 15 November 2006 Channel 4 use the space to broadcast Film4+1, but intend to launch a new television channel in the future. [2].
The loss of the slot on Freeview was reduced the broadcasting hours from 12:00 - 03:00 to 19:00 - 01:00. During this time, the channel maintained a position Freeview as it was shown on Ftn, between 22:00 and 01:00. This carriage ended on 1 January 2007.
[edit] Sky Channel Slot Closure
Quiz Call withdrew from the Sky EPG on 1 January 2007. Viewers were at first greeted by a caption stating Quiz Call will be back in mid-January this was then replaced by a test card with the Quiz Call logo and information stating that The service has now ceased, which in turn was replaced by a black screen.
[edit] Controversy
On 24 September 2006, Quiz Call admitted to The Sunday Times manipulating games by blocking callers from taking part for periods of up to 40 minutes. Under headlines of “naked profiteering”, Quiz Call said that on these occasions, it charged thousands of callers a standard 75p premium line fee — knowing that it would give them no chance to answer the prize question. In the Culture, Media and Sport committee held on 28 November 2006 representatives from Quiz Call admitted that one instance of people being put on hold did occur and that the producer responsible no longer works for Ostrich Media.[3]
Quiz Call, which once offered a £100,000 jackpot, admitted that the show’s producer was responsible for deciding how long callers had to wait to enter the games. It admitted that Quiz Call had been caught out cutting corners, in using its own staff to pose as prize winners, clutching 3ft cheques in an on-air promotion, though there was no suggestion that any employees had been playing or winning the games.[4]
The BBC Radio 4 programme You and Yours broadcast a segment on Quiz Call on 10 October 2006, who were contacted by listeners who had been barred by the channel. One listener contacted the programme to say that they were blocked by the channel after winning a number of cash prizes using the free web entry option.[5]
Quiz Call was removed from TV screens as part of Channel 5's review into all its premium rate phone calling quiz programmes in March 2007, it returned on the evening of 30 March 2007.
[edit] Quiz Call presenters
[edit] Current Presenters
Presenters who currently host Quiz Call include:
- Chris Hopkins
- Kait Borsay
- Liz Fuller
- Mike Mason
- Kay Little
- Liz Summers
- Gemma Scott
- Derek Gibbons
- Vicky Letch
- Lottie Mayor
- Carmel Thomas
- Kirsty Duffy
- Mark Rumble
[edit] Past Presenters
- James Callow
- Zö Christien
- Nikki Cowan
- Suzanne Cowie
- Alan Ennis
- Ruth Frances
- Paul Hendy
- Steve Hyland
- Lawrie Jordan
- Alex Kramer
- Carol Machin
- Sean Macintosh
- Charlie McArdle
- Abi Pethullis
- Cat Porter
- Craig Rowe
[edit] References
- ^ MediaGuardian (free subscription required)
- ^ http://community.channel4.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3696002921/m/1950058466
- ^ Sherwin, Adam MPs condemn phone-in game shows as tantamount to fraud Published by The Sunday Times on November 28, 2006. Accessed December 2, 2006.
- ^ Swinford, Steven. TV quiz sets callers a costly question. Published by The Sunday Times on September 24, 2006. Accessed December 2, 2006.
- ^ Quiz channel bans by the BBC for the BBC Radio 4 programme You and Yours, broadcast October 10, 2006, retrieved October 10, 2006
