'X Factor' makers returning phone cash?

The independent producers who make The X Factor will pay back their share of proceeds from wrongly run premium-rate phone-ins, according to insiders.

Consultants Deloitte last week said the December 2005 final and two episodes of the reality show late last year were implicated in the phone-in scandal.

Calls worth about £900,000 are thought to have been taken too late to count in the vote and ITV has promised to pay the money back.

Producers Fremantle, Talkback Thames and Simon Cowell's company Syco all got a share of the revenue from the calls.

MediaGuardian today cites sources saying the money they received, thought to be a few hundred thousand pounds, will go back to ITV.

ITV declined to officially confirm it: "Our profit on the £7.8m being reimbursed was just £2m. We didn't want to pay back just the profit but also the cost for consumers.

"In terms of other people paying back the money I can't comment on any conversations we're having."