Tonight’s televised recording of The British Soap Awards on ITV 1 was delayed by just over seven minutes by a technical fault.
The programme was due to start at 8pm but failed to appear after the opening sponsorship sting.
Instead of cutting to the programme, an early frame from the sponsorship sting appeared and remained on screen in silence for almost 40 seconds before a generic breakdown caption was put to air.
The programme finally appeared six-and-a-half minutes later.
It should be noted that there’s evidence online of the breakdown playing out slightly differently in some ITV regions.
The cause of the fault is not known but ITV has been updating its playout facilities in recent weeks.
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PICTURED: ITV 1 breakdown graphic. COPYRIGHT: ITV plc.