TV3 said it has no intention of dropping a controversial call-in programme despite 16 official complaints against it being upheld by broadcasting authorities.


Play TV, which broadcasts from midnight on the station, is now the subject of a further 11 complaints but will continue to be broadcast for the foreseeable future.


The station said the quiz programme would continue, adding that TV3 was operating in "the height of a recession" and that the programme was an important generator of revenue.


A spokeswoman said: "There were 89 complaints made and 62 of those have been finalised. Of that, 46 were either resolved or rejected and there were just 16 which were upheld.


"Every complaint has been dealt with and to have 16 upheld since May is virtually nothing when our viewership of the programme can go to 30,000 or 40,000 each night.


"The majority of the complaints were technical and every single complaint has been resolved. We work with RegTel and the broadcasting authorities 100% on this and we take the complaints very seriously."


TV3 said that the programme had been doing well and that the station was "doing it for a [financial] reason".


The spokeswoman said: "We do not have a TV licence. We had 40 redundancies earlier in the year. We need to do everything in our power to keep the station going and the full staff going.


"Since autumn, the station has been doing better than we ever have. [As regards Play TV], we haven't had as many complaints.


"We have set up an agreement with Eircom to tell people when they've reached their 50-call limit. We have taken responsibility and that was our decision.


"We are in a troubled market at the moment. We are a commercial station and we have to make money. We treat any complaint as seriously as would happen with any other programme."


Last week, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland published its findings on the 16 complaints registered against Play TV. Many of the complaints alleged that the way the programme operated was "misleading and unfair".


Each of them rejected arguments by TV3 that the quiz show was similar to competitions run on programmes like the Late Late Show.


And they also criticised TV3's response to many of the complaints with one finding saying: "The members noted that the submission from the broadcaster was general in nature and did not address the specific issue raised by the complainant.


"Given the nature of the complaint, the commission would express its disappointment with the broadcaster's submission on this occasion."