The future…is interactive – and very profitable!

1. The future…is interactive – and very profitable!

2. Quiz shows break free from TV! • Technology is allowing quiz shows, like many other programmes, to become multi-platform. • This means that they reach the audience via more than one media platform. • A platform is a way of accessing the media. Platforms include – • Broadcasting (television and radio) • E-media (the internet, podcasts) • Print (magazines and newspapers)

3. You are the future! Task: • List the media hardware you have access to. (iPod, DVD player…) • For each item of hardware, note down what media products you access through this hardware (films, news…)

4. Making money • Television advertising revenues have fallen since the growth of many smaller channels. • ITV, for example, revealed that advertising income had fallen by £50m to £1.5 billion in 2006. • Commercial broadcasters and media institutions, have tried to increase their revenues by turning to ‘participation TV,’ more commonly known as ‘call TV.’

5. How much money? • An hour of ‘Call TV’ programming can cost less than £1,000. A show can get more than 20,000 calls in 10 or 12 hours of broadcasting per day. • At £1 a call, this means a show can make £20,000 for £10,000 investment. Even after all the bills have been paid, there is still a good profit. • ‘Quiz TV’ made pre-tax profits of £2m on turnover of £3.6m, in 2004.

6. All part of the plan… • ITV has a ‘consumer division’ to think of ways of raising income directly from its viewers, rather than from advertisers. • As well as ‘ITV Play,’ this unit developed episodes of popular soaps such as Coronation Street that can be screened on mobile phones, for a fee. • Other firms are developing games that let many players play at the same time and that are available simultaneously on several platforms — television, mobile phone and the internet.

7. Quizmania on ITV Play • Quizmania makes an interesting case study in how quizzes use new media to their advantage. • Quizmania was a call TV quiz show broadcast on ITV Play, via Freeview, BSkyB and cable TV. • It was later cancelled as a result of the competition scandals. • It has returned as an online quiz.

8. The viewer pays to play! • The audience members who want to take part in quiz shows like Quizmania have to ring a premium-rate phone line. This usually costs between 60p and £1.50 a call. They are charged whether or not they make it onto the quiz. • The broadcaster keeps most of the income from the calls, usually paying a third party for providing the interactive service.

9. Building tension, hooking the audience • "Bubbly" presenters create a frantic, high-energy atmosphere. • The questions are often very easy, giving the impression that the money is well within the viewer's grasp. • The stakes are often high, with thousands of pounds available in prize money. • There is no guarantee, however, that callers will get as far as speaking to the presenter, despite paying as much as £1.50 per minute to take part.

10. The set • The Quizmania studio reflects the show's main colour theme, bright pink with elements of blue. • There are two flat-screen TVs where the animated Quizmania logo is displayed for most of the show. When special events happen in the show (e.g. Double Money, Speed Round) large text is shown on the screen. The screen is also used to show video clips as part of some games. • At various times the set has been redesigned to reflect different themes such as the summer, or Christmas.

11. Where’s the fun? • Many of the audience enjoy a sense of community from the shows. • They achieve this through being able to participate, to feel part of the show. • They also like the small number of regular presenters. They can switch on and see familiar faces. They start to feel they know the presenters and have a relationship with them.

12. Making the audience feel involved • Viewers can send in photos which are displayed in a large gold frame mounted on the wall – the ‘quizframia.’ • There are also random props / items sent in by viewers displayed along the top of the bar. • There are two picture frames on the wall, showing the "King and Queen of Quizmania". • These all work to increase the viewers’ sense of community and belonging. • This appeals to Blumler and Katz's Four Needs of ‘personal relationships.’

13. You can even get Flashed! • Even the crew on Quizmania get involved and become part of the team. Viewers could feel they were really part of a group of ‘fun friends.’ • This is Flash (Ben Sawyer) a camera operator, who spent much of his on-air time in-vision. He also does some apparently hilarious impressions on the show.

14. Show me the money! • Prizes on Quizmania usually range from £50 to £25,000. The biggest prize to be won was £28,000 on March 22, 2006. £100,000 was once available as a prize, but nobody won it. • Quizmania earned ITV over £1.2 million during the first two weeks of transmission on ITV1.

15. Criticisms of call TV • It’s a ‘lazy’ solution to the problem of raising money. Investing in better-quality programmes would lead to greater advertising revenue. • Call TV relies on the foolishness of a small number of people who probably can’t afford to waste money. The programmes just exist to make vulnerable people spend their money, with false hopes of jackpot prizes. • Some callers don’t realise that they will be charged even if they do not make it through to the game. • Some quiz shows have been accused of having deliberately unclear questions to keep people ringing back. • The cost of calling, and the fact that most callers won’t get through, often isn’t made clear enough. • One of Quizmania’s unluckiest players, "Tornado Tom", got through to the studio on 97 consecutive shows without a single win. He eventually broke his losing streak with a £75 win.

16. In defence of call TV • No one makes people play it. • It wouldn’t be popular if people didn’t enjoy it. • Call TV shows are a natural extension of the old radio phone-in competitions.

17. What do you think? • Discuss your own views of call TV. Is it acceptable? Should there be any restrictions? Why? Why not?

18. All change! In 2007 a number of competition phone-in scandals were investigated by Ofcom and the institutions found to be at fault and fined. For example: • Blue Peter was fined £50,000 after a child visiting the studio was asked to pose as a phone-in competition winner. • GMTV was fined a record £2m after it was found that some callers to its premium rate competitions had no chance of winning. • Around 11,500 text votes for ITV1's Dancing on Ice final were not processed properly because of a "technical problem" at the Vodafone network. • The company behind Richard and Judy competition You Say, We Pay was fined £150,000 after viewers were urged to call a premium number after contestants had already been chosen. • Five was fined £300,000 for faking winners on its Brainteaser quiz show.

19. And, also as a result of the 2007 phone-in scandals: • ITV's phone-in quiz channel ITV Play was scrapped after some of its competition questions came under fire for being almost impossible to answer. • Quizmania and other call TV programmes went off the air for over a year.

20. The end for call TV? • This was certainly a blow for call TV, and it seemed for a while as if Quizmania and other similar shows would never be heard of again. • However, Quizmania recently returned to its audience via a live streamed internet show. • In this way, it avoids the strict regulations that surround broadcast programmes.

21. What Quizmania say about themselves, from QM.TV • Back in the summer of 2005, on the outer reaches of the UK digital TV universe, the Quizmania phenomenon was born. 'The big QM' as it became known amongst a growing bunch of devotees, stood out amongst quizshows thanks to its unique blend of games, entertainment and outright chaos. • By Christmas of that same year, Quizmania had graduated to ITV1 where it served up moments of slapstick and pure mayhem the likes of which had never been seen on terrestrial television. Just type Quizmania into Youtube and you'll see what we mean. For almost 18 months, a lovable bunch of presenters, production crew and stuffed animals became familiar friends to quizzers and insomniacs across the UK. Such was its success that local versions were produced in Australia, Poland, Columbia, France and Portugal. • But all good things come to an end. On the 14th of January 2007, Quizmania bid farewell to its fans in the UK. To the people who produced it and those who watched every episode, Quizmania was not just a TV show. It was a place where people came to play, laugh and feel part of something. • And that's why we're bringing it back. In a completely new and different way. As you've probably noticed by now, it's on your computer not your TV! There's no telephone number on screen. None of the questions are 'Girl’s names beginning with M'. And most important of all, everyone gets to play every game. • We hope you like it! The QM team

22. Summary • Broadcasters deliberately looked to raise money through new technologies, including Call TV. • Call TV was very profitable, and phone-in quizzes were very common on all kinds of TV shows. • Scandal erupted in 2007 and most phone-in competitions were dropped. • Call TV was taken off the air. • Call TV has returned, now as online quiz shows, avoiding the rules about TV programmes.

23. Question • Outline the latest trends in TV Quiz Shows mentioning the use of technology, examples of recent changes in media platforms, ways of making money and how some TV Quiz shows have been linked to scandal and have been taken off the air. What is your opinion about these shows?