ITV has announced that it will continue to include a phone-in element in its shows despite last month’s phone-in vote scandal.

Last month an independent report showed that ITV viewers had spent millions on un-counted phone-in votes. ITV faces the embarrassing task of reimbursing the viewers who were scammed and the station now faces payments of 18m.

However, ITV officials have said that the station thinks that phone in voting is an important part of interactive television and they will not ditch the phone-in voting system anytime in the near future.

ITV’s newest reality TV show, Rock Rivals, will have a phone-in element. The show’s plot depends on viewers votes. Seeing as how the show was announced before any of last months scandal came out, some viewers are wondering if the ending has been decided already.

The station insisted that their main priority now, was to make sure every vote was counted. Well, we’ll see.