TV on bingo is nothing new - some of you may remember Bob's Full House or Shane Richie's Lucky Numbers - plus bingo sites have been sponsoring programmes such as Jeremy Kyle and Family Fortunes plus there are loads of bingo tv adverts too!
June 2008 saw the launch of the UK's Bingo Night Live programme. It offered bingo players the chance to play free bingo via an online TV game - but it wasn't the only way to combine TV and bingo. Sadly TV and bingo failed to hit it off. Instead, online bingo sites are focusing on Live Bingo streamed via the internet. Anyway here's what happened to those who tried to take on the TV!
Bingojoy: With this show you could watch former Big Brother winner Brian Dowling call the numbers for Bingojoy! You could find the game running on Sky Channels 158, 168 and 200 during the day. It was a lowtech affair but fun.
GalaTV: Gala TV used to be Sky Channel 861. In April 2011 they ceased using this channel and the Gala.TV shows are now streamed online. Click the TV tab at Gala Bingo to find your favourite shows.
Big Box Bingo: This game from Bingos allowed you to play six games of bingo each and every Friday evening at 6:30pm on Sky 848! Cards cost £1.50 and you could either print them out online or have them sent to you. It didn't last long and Bingos moved to the Best Bingo Network.
ITV's Bingo Night Live: This was a free to play TV game that attracted a lot of interest. Jenny Powell, Melinda Messenger and Michael Underwood all presented the programme. However it failed to generate much needed revenue (or even an audience as the programme was so bad) and was soon removed from the schedules.
The videos above show you what to expect from a TV bingo game. Many pundits expected TV bingo to take off, but we think it failed as it lacks the excitement and social interaction that you can get when online.
TV bingo games have been a huge hit in The USA and Australia and no doubt if the right formula can be found we expect TV bingo to go mainstream in The UK... let's hope it's not a remake of Lucky Numbers though!
We think you're better off enjoying onine bingo.
