Anger grows over ITV's comedy awards delay

A row over the British Comedy Awards is growing today with organisers insisting that ITV broadcast the show live.

ITV has "postponed" its broadcast of Britain's most watched awards but stopped other channels airing the ceremony live by paying a £700,000 blocking fee.

Media lawyers Olswang are investigating irregularities in the 2005 show after it was alleged that viewers were asked to vote by phone for their favourite comedy after the count had ended.

ITV said today its position will not change until the probe is concluded.

Unique Communications, the production company behind the awards, points out that ITV has continued to air its own programmes, such as Ant And Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, that have used phone votes wrongly.

Today Unique will call on ITV chairman Michael Grade to reverse his decision or allow another channel to step in.

The awards will be filmed at ITV's London Studios on 5 December.

Leading the way in the nominations, announced today, is BBC Three's Gavin And Stacey, with seven.