Quiz Call
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Quiz Call | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Format | Live, studio and phone-in quiz show |
| Created by | 9Live |
| Starring | Various Presenters |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Ostrich Media (owned by iTouch) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Quiz Call, Five, Five US and Fiver |
| Original run | 2005 – Present |
Quiz Call is a phone-in quiz show, produced by Ostrich Media (owned by iTouch) for Five, Five US and Fiver.
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 Landline but increased to £0.75 in the summer of 2006. All calls are charged whether the caller gets through to the studio or not.
On 22 April 2006, the channel made its début on analogue terrestrial 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 6 August 2006 Quiz Call gave viewers a unique opportunity to win a brand new car. Callers who got through to the studio had their name put into a bowl and at the end of the broadcast the person who was selected was called back live on air to answer a question. The car was won by Tracy from Newquay.
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.
On a number of occasions in 2008 Quiz Call has switched from Channel 5 to Five US because of a live sport being shown on Five. The cash amounts decreased enormously from sometimes the highest cash amount being £2,000 and then dropped to £500.
[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 used the space to broadcast Film4+1, and subsequently Channel 4+1.
The loss of the slot on Freeview had 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.[2]
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.[3]
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.[4]
Quiz Call was removed from TV screens as part of Five's review into all its premium rate phone calling quiz programmes in March 2007, it returned on the evening of 30 March 2007. As of 2008, it is the only participation TV show of its kind left on British TV.
[edit] Quiz Call presenters
[edit] Current Presenters
Presenters who currently host Quiz Call include:
- Liz Fuller
- Chris Hopkins
- Kait Borsay
- Keith Price
- Chris Park
[edit] Past Presenters
- Kay Little
- Vicky Letch
- James Callow
- Derek Gibbons
- Zö Christien
- Nikki Cowan
- Suzanne Cowie
- Alan Ennis
- Ruth Frances
- Lawrie Jordan
- Paul Hendy
- Steve Hyland
- Alex Kramer
- Carol Machin
- Sean Macintosh
- Charlie McArdle
- Abi Pethullis
- Cat Porter
- Craig Rowe
- Mike Mason
- Lottie Mayor
- Carmel Thomas
- Kirsty Duffy
- Gemma Scott
- Liz Summers
- Mark Rumble
[edit] References
- ^ MediaGuardian (free subscription required)
- ^ 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
