ITV partners with Ecospend to offer ‘pay-by-bank’ services for ITV Win competition

ITV has today announced that it is partnering with Ecospend, a leading UK provider of open banking technology, to offer customers the ability to ‘pay-by-bank’ for its ITV Win competitions, which feature on headline shows, such as I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!  Ecospend’s open banking payment method will launch on the ITV Win website and could potentially later offer an off-the-screen QR code functionality to let viewers pay for an ITV win entry directly from the screen.

As a result of the partnership, payment processing times will become instant and bypass all card processing fees, acquirer fees and issuer fees. As such, ITV will be able to significantly reduce the cost of processing payments. It will be ITV’s most cost-effective payment solution to date, allowing them to pay a fraction of the cost of regular card transactions. It will sit alongside the broadcaster’s existing payment methods, which include PayPal, Apple Pay, and card payments.

Ecospend’s payment solution requires no card information or personal data to be inputted. It will also significantly reduce the risk of fraud and eliminate chargebacks, both of which can incur significant costs. The technology provides a more secure payment process, with every transaction authorised by bank level security.

James Hickman, COO, Ecospend, comments: “This is one of the highest profile examples of the benefits that open banking payments technology is bringing to Britons. Through the ‘pay by bank’ pathway, we are bringing both significant efficiencies to ITV, while also opening the door to an improved way for ITV Win participants to enter their favourite competitions. 

“This partnership represents another major step in the adoption of open banking technology, and as such, is also an explicit example of how Ecospend’s technology can be used to modernise the payments landscape and bring real benefits to businesses, and their customers.”

Paul Gill, ITV’s Director of Commissioning, Commercial and Operations, Interactive & ITL, said: “At ITV we are committed to ensuring that our viewers can take part in their favourite competitions in the easiest, and most convenient way possible, and adopting open banking technology allows us to do exactly this.”