National Lottery takes full coverage of ITV Saturday night primetime

The National Lottery has regained its terrestrial Saturday night primetime coverage, securing sponsorship of three back-to-back ITV shows.

Beginning 19 December, the National Lottery will serve as headline sponsor of ITV1’s Saturday night roster of ‘The Masked Singer’, ‘The Voice UK’ and ‘Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’.

The deal represents the first time ITV has allowed a single advertiser to sponsor three of its Saturday night primetime shows.

Sponsorship of ITV Saturday night headline programmes are recognised amongst the UK’s highest costing marketing inventory. Takeaway app Deliveroo is reported to have paid £7 million to sponsor a single series of Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway which achieved record audiences of 11.2 million viewers during 2020.

Mark Trinder, ITV Director of Partnerships, said: “Saturday nights on ITV have come to define quintessential family entertainment, and as we celebrate the return of three of our most talked-about shows – The Masked Singer, The Voice UK and Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway – we’re welcoming onboard our brand new sponsor National Lottery operator, Camelot, for this innovative partnership that will put all the titans of Saturday night TV under one sponsorship umbrella.”

Camelot’s three-show sponsorship with ITV was brokered by National Lottery media planning agency Vizeum. Seeking to secure optimal coverage for the National Lottery, Camelot has tasked creative agency Adam & Eve DDB with developing a new ‘360 creative campaign’ to showcase its ITV sponsorship.

Camelot CMO Keith Moor said: “The National Lottery has been making Saturday night more entertaining for the past 26 years, with every ticket providing a moment of anticipation while also helping to raise around £30 million each week for National Lottery-funded good causes.

“These are ITV’s flagship entertainment shows with the biggest audiences – so there’s a fantastic fit between the two brands with this partnership, and it will only help people to better understand the connection between The National Lottery’s unique purpose and play.”

Betting firms’ deals with trainers and jockeys treble

The number of trainers and jockeys signing up to links with betting firms has trebled in three years. A British Horseracing Authority register lists the names of 19 trainers and 24 jockeys as having commercial arrangements with bookmakers. The authority said on Thursday that in 2016 the register had six trainers and eight jockeys.

Some of the links on the list are with long-established bookies, such as Frankie Dettori’s arrangement with Ladbrokes, Paul Nicholls’s with Betfair or Colin Tizzard’s stable with Coral, but most involve newer firms striving to build market share in the lucrative British and Irish betting markets. Flat rider Josephine Gordon writes a blog for Unibet, for instance, while the Gloucestershire trainer Fergal O’Brien is on the register alongside 32Red, the online casino that brokered a deal to bring Wayne Rooney to Derby County.

A well-known sports professional writing for a betting site, or helping to promote it, raises its profile and attracts punters. Riding racehorses, and training them, can be a very precarious career – so maximising earnings when possible is an understandable pursuit.

However, links to bookmakers, although perfectly legal, could adversely affect public perception of racing. Bookie sponsorship is forever widening its scope – William Hill sponsor ITV Racing, while several of that channel’s presenters write blogs for, or are ambassadors for, various other firms. An ITV Racing spokesperson said: “Promotional work that any of our pundits undertake for betting companies is separate to their work for us and cannot be promoted through ITV.”

Photographs of a winning jockey after a Grand National, Derby or other big race – with a highly visible brand name or logo on silks and breeches – is invaluable publicity for bookies. And while not exactly resembling Lewis Hamilton on an F1 podium, more trainers are starting to sport promotional logos.

Before entering an arrangement with a betting company, all trainers and jockeys must notify the BHA of the details, under rules governing “payment for non-riding or non-training services”.

There is no suggestion of bookmakers acting improperly. The kind of control mechanism they have introduced includes one from Betfair that obliges staff who “ghostwrite” blogs for racing people to sign agreements not to act on information they receive until it is in the public domain.

Asked for a response to the increase in the register, the BHA stated: “Guidelines are provided to trainers and riders as and when they enter into an arrangement with a betting organisation.

“We monitor the arrangements on an ongoing basis, as well as public perception. Services to betting organisations include blog posts, social media work, company functions, photo-shoots, video content, yard visits and a commitment to wear branded clothing.”

The authority’s guidelines display concern to prevent any suspicion of insider dealing. Trainers are advised: “For ‘high-profile’ horses, those running in graded races, feature handicaps or any races where there is a known ante-post betting market, the appropriateness of market-sensitive information should be strongly considered before it is first made available to the public through media hosted by a betting operator. Such information, could include, but is not limited to: jockey bookings, changes to publicly stated running plans, equine injuries and fatalities.

“If in doubt, it is highly likely the most appropriate means of communicating the information to the public is either through the media (PA, Racing Post etc.) or through the trainer’s own channels (e.g. website or social media).”

32Red partners ITV for exclusive online slot launch

Gibraltar-licensed online gaming operator 32Red has signed a three-year deal with UK broadcaster ITV to launch an exclusive new online slot game based on popular reality TV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

32Red signed the agreement with ITV’s Brand Extensions division, which was established to help the broadcaster monetise its most popular programmes.

32Red’s chief executive Ed Ware said his company was “working closely with ITV on a number of initiatives,” adding he was “very excited” about launching the new online slot, which has been developed by Microgaming and is expected to go live on 32Red.com on Thursday, ahead of the show’s return to UK TV screens later this month.

“Obviously the programme is extremely well known and the character of the show converts well into the exclusive slot game we are launching later this week,” Ware explained. “It's another landmark alliance for 32Red and part of our plan to invest in the brand and make positive but relevant associations with highly credible partners.”

I’m a Celebrity … Get me out of here! is a reality TV show in which eight to twelve celebrities live together in a jungle environment for a few weeks without any luxuries, with the winner crowned king or queen of the jungle. The first episode aired in the UK in 2002 with the thirteenth series of the show set to begin later this month.

The new slot game uses iconography from the TV show, as well as the theme tune and other features. Aside from the regular game play, players have the chance to win up to 50 free spins when 3, 4 or 5 scatters appear on screen, triggering a Bushtucker Trial style choice of creepy insects to decide on the free spins multiplier.

32Red’s head of marketing Mark Quayle asaid that the company was “confident that the association with such a strong brand will prove to be a huge success for us.”

“The slot game will be available for casino, poker and bingo players at 32Red to ensure all of our players can sample the thrills of the jungle,” he said.

The partnership marks ITV’s latest online gaming partnership, with the company already working with operator NetPlay TV on the casino site Jackpot247 which features both companies’ branding, and ITV Bingo, managed by Foxy Bingo operator Cashcade and using software provided by 888’s B2B arm Dragonfish.

William van Rest, ITV's director of commerce and ventures, said: “ITV is pleased to be working with 32Red on this fantastic brand extension for I'm a Celebrity.. Get Me Out Of Here! The slot design brings the jungle and its creepy creatures alive with a great new game for 32Red players. We are sure it will be a very popular addition to the 32Red offer.”

It is the first instance of 32Red launching new content with one of its partners, with the majority of its previous deals involving advertising opportunities. The operator sponsors a number of horse racing events, and is an active football sponsor currently working with Italian club Bologna FC. It also sponsors the Late Night Film on UK TV channel Film4.

ITV.com adds gambling site with William Hill

British commercial television broadcaster ITV has announced a new broadcast and online partnership for 2010 with UK bookmaker William Hill, under which viewers of sport on ITV and online at ITV.com will be able to benefit from exclusive sports betting offers, including in-play betting through a bespoke promotional site.

The on-air creative campaign, which launched during the FA Cup fifth round last weekend, was negotiated by ITV Commercial directly with William Hill and will drive consumers to the promotional site, ITV.com/WilliamHill.

ITV is currently in the middle of a four-year deal to show live FA Cup games, having taken over the rights from the BBC and BSkyB in 2007. Under the deal, ITV is allowed to show live coverage of sixteen FA Cup games per season including first pick live matches from each of the 1st to 6th rounds of the competition, plus one semi-final exclusively live, as well as highlights of all ties.

“We’re delighted to be working in partnership with ITV and bringing our sports betting product, particularly in-play betting, to a wider audience,” said Henry Birch, Chief Executive of William Hill Online.

Steve Chambers, Key Account Director of ITV Commercial added: “As the home of free-to-air live football in the UK ITV is a natural brand fit with William Hill. We are really excited about partnering with the UK’s top online bookmaker.”

The agreement follows last year's four-month sponsorship by William Hill Bingo of ITV daytime show 'The Real Deal'.

ITV fined record £5.7m for phone-in scandal

UK media regulator Ofcom has fined ITV a record £5.7m for last year’s premium rate phone-in competition scandal. The fine is nearly three times the record amount of £2m previously handed to GMTV, and was issued in connection with gaming transgressions that occurred during shows such as Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, Soap Star Super Star and Gameshow Marathon.

Ofcom found that the show producers had committed numerous transgressions of TV regulations and broadcasting codes such as “selecting competition finalists before the telephone lines were announced as closed, staggering the selection of competition finalists which meant that viewers entering the competition did not have a fair and equal chance of winning” and “selecting finalists on the basis of their suitability to be on television and where they lived - contrary to the broadcaster’s own terms and conditions, which explicitly stated that entrants would be chosen randomly”.

Philip Graf, chairman of Ofcom’s Content Sanctions Committee, said: “ITV programme makers totally disregarded their own published terms and conditions and Ofcom Codes. Further there was a completely inadequate compliance system in place. The result was that millions of paying entrants were misled into believing they could fairly interact with some of ITV’s most popular programmes.”

Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, said: “This was a thorough set of investigations which uncovered institutionalised failure within ITV that enabled the broadcaster to make money from misconduct on mass audience programmes. The industry can be in no doubt how seriously Ofcom takes the issue of audience trust. Our new licence conditions requiring broadcasters, who operate in this area, to conduct third party audits will ensure that consumers are protected”.

Ofcom added that ITV was unable to provide it with sufficient data in relation to its regional programming, where premuim rate services were used. The regulator considered Wthat this lack of information appears to indicate an absence of robust systems in place in the operation of PRS in regional programming”.

ITV faces £70m phone scandal fine

The results of the investigation carried out by accountants Deloitte into the premium-rate phone-line scandal at ITV could lead to fines of up to £70m (US$140m) for the UK broadcaster and possible criminal investigations if regulator Ofcom decides to pass the case on to Scotland Yard.

Only parts of the Deloitte report were made public by ITV yesterday but the headline figures will make uneasy reading for the interactive TV sector. Viewers spent £8m on phone calls to ITV competitions they thought they were influencing. The full cost of the scandal could rise to £18m.

ITV chief executive Michael Grade said no senior ITV executives would lose their jobs over the scandal because running the investigation on the basis of finding someone to sack “would not have produced a full and frank” picture. When questioned about possible criminal charges of fraud for those involved in the deception, Grade insisted that their motives were not to increase revenues but to produce better television shows. He then pledged a ‘zero tolerance’ policy on any future transgression and praised his company for its openness in the matter.

The investigation found serious “editorial issues” going as far back as 2005 with flagship ITV shows such as Saturday Night Takeaway, X-Factor and Soapstar Superstar. Some of the charges include the producers manufacturing the results of viewer phone-ins by disregarding voter requests and picking songs they thought would be more suitable for contestants to sing or picking winners of cash competitions only if they lived within an hour of where the production team happened to be.

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