2007 British Premium-rate Phone-in Scandal
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The 2007 British premium-rate phone-in scandal, sometimes referred to in the press as simply the phone-in scandal relates to a series of controversies regarding the use of
premium-rate telephone number Premium-rate telephone numbers are telephone numbers that charge callers higher price rates for select services, including information and entertainment. A portion of the call fees is paid to the service provider, allowing premium calls to be an ...
s (or PRS) by several British television and radio broadcasters. The first revelations began in February 2007, regarding the
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
television programme ''
Richard & Judy ''Richard & Judy'' (also known as ''Richard & Judy's New Position'') is a British television chat show presented by the married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. The show originally aired on Channel 4 from 26 November 2001 to 22 Augus ...
''. However, over the following weeks, more allegations emerged regarding misconduct by major British broadcasters including the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
,
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
, Channel 4 and Channel 5. The programmes affected included phone-in competitions and public votes conducted over a period of several years, dating back to 2001. As a result, adjudicators
Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
and
ICSTIS The Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA), known as PhonepayPlus until 1 November 2016, is the regulatory body for all premium rate phone-paid services in the United Kingdom. These are the content, goods and services that consumers can buy by ch ...
(now known as Phone-paid Services Authority) conducted several investigations, resulting in millions of pounds worth of fines and a reform in the use of PRS by broadcasters.


Background


Pre-2007

There had been some investigations into the use of PRS in television programmes in the years leading up to 2007. In 2005, Ofcom found two broadcasters to be in breach of their licensing conditions for failure to maintain recordings of quiz programmes, following complaints about their handling of competitions. In October 2006, ICSTIS received 2635 complaints regarding the seventh series of
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
's reality television show '' Big Brother'', after a contestant that had been voted off the show by paying viewers was then allowed back onto the programme, resulting in fines of almost £50,000 for the phone service providers.' Between late 2006 and early 2007, Ofcom recorded breaches against broadcasters regarding the fairness of television quiz shows and competitions, including TWC,
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
,
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
and Channel 5. In January 2007, Gamecast UK was issued a fine of £100,000 for its broadcast of pre-recorded competitions inviting viewers to call a premium rate number when they had no chance of winning, in addition to other serious code breaches regarding the broadcast of
pornographic material Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,
and other unauthorised broadcasts. Gamecast's licence was ultimately revoked in April 2007 after failing to pay the fine.


February 2007

On 18 February 2007, the ''
Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first pub ...
'' reported that it had received leaked emails regarding the television programme ''
Richard & Judy ''Richard & Judy'' (also known as ''Richard & Judy's New Position'') is a British television chat show presented by the married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. The show originally aired on Channel 4 from 26 November 2001 to 22 Augus ...
'', which was broadcast nightly. In each programme, a competition named ''You Say We Pay'' ran, in which viewers were invited to call a premium-rate phone number for the chance of being randomly selected to play a game with the
presenters A presenter is a person or organization responsible for the running of a public event, or someone who conveys information on media via a broadcasting outlet. Presenter may refer to: People * News presenter, person who presents news during a new ...
. On 14 February 2007 at 5:09pm, nine minutes into the programme, Eckoh (the telephone service provider) emailed Cactus TV (the production company) a list of 24 potential winners, from which one winner would be chosen. However, ten minutes later, a second message was broadcast inviting viewers to continue to call in, even though nobody calling after Eckoh's email was sent had any chance of being entered. The report also clarified that it had no evidence that the show's presenters, Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, had any knowledge of the issues. On 22 February, following Channel 4's admittance that several series of the programme could have been affected and a claim from a contestant that the problems existed in 2002, ICSTIS announced their intention to conduct an inquiry into the programme. On 28 February, Eckoh pulled out of its contract with Cactus TV. Following the allegations regarding ''Richard & Judy'', ICSTIS began to investigate the BBC's cookery show ''
Saturday Kitchen ''Saturday Kitchen Live'' is a British cookery programme, that is broadcast live on BBC One every Saturday between 10.00am and 11.30am produced by Cactus TV. History 2002–2003 After a pilot hosted by Ainsley Harriott on 14 April 2001, the ...
'' - also produced by Cactus TV - after it was alleged that nine editions of the programme had invited viewers to call a PRS - also provided by Eckoh - even though the broadcasts were pre-recorded and viewers' calls had no chance of being put through. On 28 February, it was also reported that ITV had admitted to overcharging viewers via its "
red button Red button may refer to: *Red Button (digital television), a button on the remote control for certain digital television set top boxes in the United Kingdom and Australia, and used to access interactive television services **BBC Red Button, a digit ...
" voting service during the third series of ''
The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...
'' - resulting in £200,000 in extra charges to viewers - and had reported their findings to ICSTIS.


March 2007

On 1 March, ICSTIS chairman Sir Alistair Graham invited senior executives of the UK's leading broadcasters to a meeting to discuss the emerging allegations, stating: "My concern is that these problems are resulting in a loss of viewer trust in participation TV and in the premium-rate payment mechanism." On 6 March, ITV suspended all premium-rate telephone services, though certain services resumed on 13 March. Though the BBC and Channel 5 initially stated that they had no plans to suspend PRS, Channel 5 did so on 8 March, reporting that on five separate occasions, after their programme ''
BrainTeaser ''BrainTeaser'' was a British game show based on the original Dutch format of ''Puzzeltijd'' (English: Puzzle Time). The show was broadcast live, with phone-in viewer puzzles being announced and played during the show in addition to the studi ...
'' had failed to find a winning contestant to their competitions, broadcast fictitious names as "winners", including one incident where a member of the production team posed as a "winner". Channel 4 suspended PRS following revelations of a "glitch" preventing callers from being entered into a competition on the racing programme '' The Morning Line''. The first radio stations were named in the controversy on 12 March, after
Virgin Radio Virgin Radio launched in the United Kingdom in 1993. In 2008, Virgin Radio UK was sold to TIML, a subsidiary of The Times of India group, and the name was changed to Absolute Radio; the Virgin Radio name was not included in the sale. In 2001, ...
admitted to inviting viewers to call a pre-recorded programme, and
LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadca ...
being investigated for allegedly not revealing the price of phone calls to listeners. On 13 March, Eckoh announced that they were referring the scandal to the police, following allegations that it mishandled votes relating to the sixth series of ''I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here''. The BBC revealed that two of its children's programmes were affected: ''
Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Tel ...
'' had faked a competition winner after a technical fault prevented callers from getting through; and pre-recorded repeats of ''Smile'' had invited viewers to call in when they had no chance of getting through. Other ITV programmes that were named as being investigated included ''
Soapstar Superstar ''Soapstar Superstar'' is a British talent show that aired on ITV from 6 January 2006 to 13 January 2007. The show's format works in a similar format to that of ''Pop Idol'' and ''The X Factor'', in that the competition features a group of soap ...
'', ''
Dancing On Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series presented by Phillip Schofield alongside Holly Willoughby from 2006 to 2011, who then returned in 2018, and Christine Bleakley from 2012 to 2014. The series features celebrities and their profe ...
'', ''
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and ...
'', ''Gameshow Marathon'' and ''
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway ''Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'' (referred to simply as ''Saturday Night Takeaway'' or ''SNT'') is a British television variety show, created and presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloquially known as Ant & Dec), and b ...
''. In March 2007, ITV appointed
Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...
to conduct a "comprehensive review" into the broadcaster's use of PRS in its programming.


April 2007

On 23 April, BBC's ''Panorama'' broadcast a show which investigated the use of PRS in multiple programmes, including GMTV and its competitions, which were provided by Opera Telecom.


September 2007

It was revealed by The Observer that a crisis meeting had taken place on 26 September by the heads of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. Mark Thompson,
Michael Grade Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth, (born 8 March 1943) is an English television executive and businessman. He has held a number of senior roles in television, including controller of BBC1 (1984–1986), chief executive of Channel 4 ( ...
, Andy Duncan and Jane Lighting were all in attendance, to discuss their attempt to "restore public trust in broadcasting".


October 2007

The results of the Deloitte review were published in a report on 18 October. Described as "the most comprehensive review carried out into the use of PRS by any UK broadcaster", the report identified "serious or concerning issues in a limited number of ITV programmes". The report stated, regarding the various issues:
ITV has taken specialist legal advice in respect of each of the specific issues set out in this document and is advised that the evidence does not support any allegation of criminal behaviour. ITV has identified and will take appropriate action in relation to each aspect of the findings of the review.


Investigation

Ofcom revealed that they had 23 open investigations against broadcasters, while ICSTIS had a further 15. On 22 March, Ofcom announced its intention to investigate the use of PRS on television, with an inquiry led by Richard Ayre. In a statement, Ofcom's chief executive Ed Richards said:
"Widespread concern about the use of premium rate telephone lines by broadcasters and editorial standards in those programmes has raised serious questions about trust between broadcasters and viewers. Ofcom has been monitoring the issue closely and has launched a number of individual investigations since the start of the year. However it is clear from the number of cases underway that a broader set of issues need to be examined as a matter of priority. This inquiry will seek to establish the root cause of the compliance issues which have emerged over recent weeks, and inform key decisions about protecting consumers."
Though it was reported in October 2007 that the Serious Fraud Office would be investigating the scandal, they later announced that the cases did not "meet the SFO criterion for acceptance for investigation". Between June 2007 and October 2009, Ofcom published the findings of their investigations into breaches of its
Broadcasting Code The Broadcasting Code2017 is a code of practice issued by the Office of Communications (Ofcom) in the UK that requires standards of good conduct for broadcasters. This elaborates on the Communications Act 2003 section 319 and others, on duties of ...
with relation to the use of PRS. This resulted in over £11 million of fines and statutory sanctions placed on networks. In September 2007, ICSTIS found service provider Opera Telecom to be in breach of its code, in relation to its provision of competitions for GMTV.


Methods used and errors made

Over the course of several years, broadcasters, service providers and programme producers breached Ofcom's Broadcasting Code in various different ways. Some were foreseeable errors, and others were deliberate interventions made to alter results.


Fake competition winners

One of the most prolific methods used by programmes during this period was the use of fake winners of competitions. Between 25 July 2005 and 17 March 2007, ten different programmes announced fictitious names and winners of their contests. This included eight BBC programmes, Channel 5's ''
BrainTeaser ''BrainTeaser'' was a British game show based on the original Dutch format of ''Puzzeltijd'' (English: Puzzle Time). The show was broadcast live, with phone-in viewer puzzles being announced and played during the show in addition to the studi ...
'', and GCap's ''Secret Sound'', which was broadcast on 30 different radio stations. Some of the entries to the competition were fabricated by the production team and, in a few instances, members of the production staff appeared on the programme posing as winners. On one occasion, during the broadcast of ''Blue Peter'', a child visiting the studio was asked by a researcher to pretend to be a competition winner, which they did. This resulted in an additional recorded breach against the BBC for failing to protect the welfare of children.


Early finalising and overriding of public votes

The
2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
and
2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
British Comedy Awards The National Comedy Awards (known as the British Comedy Awards from 1990 to 2014) is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom, celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year. The British Comedy Awards (1 ...
both featured two pre-recorded half-hour segments inviting viewers to vote for the recipient of the People's Choice Award. On both occasions, in real-time, the award had already presented, and viewers were still being asked to vote. During the 2005 awards, a decision was taken to override the public vote for the People's Choice Award. ''Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'' was named the winner, whereas the show with the highest number of votes was actually ''
The Catherine Tate Show ''The Catherine Tate Show'' is a British television sketch comedy written by Catherine Tate and Derren Litten. Tate also stars in all but one of the show's sketches, which feature a wide range of characters. ''The Catherine Tate Show'' airs on B ...
''. The reason for the switch has never been identified, though two theories were investigated by Ofcom. The first theory was that
Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stud ...
, who presented the award, would appear on the programme only if he could present it to
Ant and Dec Ant & Dec are a British television presenting duo, consisting of Anthony McPartlin (born 18 November 1975) and Declan Donnelly (born 25 September 1975), from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Formed after their meeting as child actors on CBBC's dr ...
; the second theory was that employees of ITV instructed the switch (''Takeaway'' was an ITV show, whereas ''Catherine Tate'' was broadcast on BBC One). Ofcom expressed its " isappointmentat the lack of cooperation it received" from members of the production. Similar breaches were also recorded against the programme ''Soapstar Superstar''. On 5 January 2007, senior producers finalised the vote two minutes before the lines had closed, while presenter
Zoe Ball Zoe Louise Ball (born 23 November 1970) is a British radio and television presenter. She was the first female host of both ''Radio 1 Breakfast'' and ''The Radio 2 Breakfast Show'' for the BBC, and presented the 1990s children's show ''Live & K ...
was still inviting viewers to vote. After the vote closed, the last (11th) placed contestant in the vote was eliminated. However, instead of the 9th and 10th placed contestants being put forward to the overnight vote to evict, the actual results were disregarded, and the 7th and 8th placed contestants were put forward for the vote instead. Another aspect of voting for the show involved the public voting for which song they would like the contestants to sing. On at least eight occasions, the production team overrode the vote and decided for themselves which songs the contestants would sing. ITV acknowledged that junior members of staff who objected to these actions were "firmly sat upon" by senior producers. Ofcom opined that the programme makers "showed their total contempt for ITV1’s audience" in manipulating the votes in this way, and described their behaviour as "absolutely reprehensible". Ofcom also recorded a breach against ITV relating to the programme ''I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!'' after it emerged that, on 30 November 2006, voting had closed three and a half minutes early, meaning that over 20,000 votes cast during this period were not counted. On this occasion, however, no statutory sanction was imposed.


Unfair selection of competition finalists

Ofcom described in their reports a number of unfair methods used to select competition winners in certain programmes, overriding the requirements for "random" selection. These included: * Early selection - where competition finalists were being selected before the lines had closed, resulting in later callers having no chance of being selected * Staggered selection - where several shortlists of competition finalists were produced before the lines had closed, resulting in later callers having a lower statistical chance of being selected * Geographical selection - entrants being unaware that the competition was not being conducted in their area, meaning they stood no chance of winning * Editorial selection - where winners were chosen based on their "suitability to be on screen", or where staff deliberately selected entrants who had guessed the answer incorrectly, in order to prolong the competition * Denying prizes to genuine winners - in the case of ''The Clare McDonnell'' ''Show'', some entrants who had guessed the correct answer were refused the prize, as they had already won previous competitions on BBC 6 Music


Inclusion of competitions in pre-recorded programmes

On a number of occasions, Ofcom sanctioned broadcasters for broadcasting competitions and other services "as live", whereas the programmes were actually pre-recorded, and anyone who called to use the services offered had no chance of doing so. These included five editions of ''Tony Blackburn'', eight editions of ''Dermot O'Leary'' and 31 different broadcasts on ITV2's timeshift service, ITV2+1, broadcast an hour later. Though a breach was recorded against ITV regarding a similar incident during a repeat of ''People's Court'', no sanction was issued on this occasion. The BBC were sanctioned for repeating a falsified competition from ''Blue Peter'' (see above) on
CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...
.


Non-inclusion of SMS entrants

In the case of ''Gameshow Marathon'', ITV were sanctioned for their "lack of clarity" as to whether people entering competitions via SMS had been included.


Flawed logic competitions

In two of ITV2's competitions - ''The Mint'' and ''Glitterball'' - incorrect answers had been announced as correct. In ''The Mint'', the answer to a
wordsearch A word search, word find, word seek, word sleuth or mystery word puzzle is a word game that consists of the letters of words placed in a grid, which usually has a rectangular or square shape. The objective of this puzzle is to find and mark all ...
-style game was announced as "TUNA", despite the grid not containing the letter U. In a ''Glitterball'' word-making game, the answer "HATCH" had been derived from the word "ENCHANTED", despite rules stating that letters could only be used once, and there was only one letter H available. Though breaches were recorded by Ofcom, no sanctions were issued.


List of breaches recorded by Ofcom

Below is a table containing a list of breaches and, where relevant, sanctions imposed by Ofcom, including the name of the broadcaster and the programme it related to.


Aftermath


Presenters

Richard Madeley Richard Holt Madeley ( born 13 May 1956) is an English television presenter and writer. Alongside his wife Judy Finnigan, he presented '' This Morning'' and the chat show '' Richard & Judy''. Madeley's solo projects include the ITV series '' F ...
and
Judy Finnigan Judith Adele Finnigan (born 16 May 1948) is an English television presenter and writer. She co-presented ITV's '' This Morning'' (1988–2001, 2019–) and the Channel 4 chat show, ''Richard & Judy'' (2001–2008) alongside her husband Richard ...
, presenters of the first identified problematic programme, apologised to their viewers on their programme, while denying any knowledge of wrongdoing on their programme. Finnigan stated: "Richard and I knew nothing about this until late on Friday afternoon - we were very shocked and also angry on your behalf. We're very sorry." After the Deloitte report was published in October 2007,
Ant and Dec Ant & Dec are a British television presenting duo, consisting of Anthony McPartlin (born 18 November 1975) and Declan Donnelly (born 25 September 1975), from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Formed after their meeting as child actors on CBBC's dr ...
, who presented two of the affected programmes, expressed "disappointment" at the findings of the investigations, making it clear that they had "no idea" that compliance failures were occurring. This was seconded by director of ITV Michael Grade, describing the pair's credits as
executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...
s as "kind of a vanity credit". Ant and Dec confirmed in a statement that any profits from the next series of ''Saturday Night Takeaway'' would be donated to charity. Later, in May 2008, they stated that they would be returning their wrongfully awarded British Comedy Award from 2005.
Catherine Tate Catherine Jane Ford (born 5 December 1969), known professionally as Catherine Tate, is an English actress, comedian and writer. She has won numerous awards for her work on the BBC sketch comedy series ''The Catherine Tate Show'' (2004–2007), ...
, whose
comedy sketch show Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and i ...
was the rightful winner, explained on an episode of ''
The Graham Norton Show ''The Graham Norton Show'' is a British comedy chat show presented by Graham Norton. It was initially broadcast on BBC Two, from 22 February 2007, before moving to BBC One in October 2009. It currently airs on Friday evenings, with Norton s ...
'' that she had finally received her award, and joked about confronting Declan Donnolly in a supermarket.


Ofcom

As a result of the scandal, and the subsequent investigations and sanctions that followed, Ofcom announced their intention to raise the maximum fine that they could impose on ITV and its regional networks, stating that the current guidelines did not "provide sufficient incentives for the licensees to maintain broadcasting standards for the protection of members of the public from the inclusion of offensive and harmful material".


Further incidents

In December 2020, Ofcom found ITV to be in breach of the Broadcasting Code and their licensing conditions regarding competitions. ITV made Ofcom aware that, following mandatory third-party verification of its competitions, 40,000 postal entries into six competitions between 2016 and 2019 had failed to be included. Postal entries are free-to-enter (excluding delivery costs). Ofcom opined that: "ITV failed to properly implement and execute procedures that are fundamental to ensuring compliance with rules regarding the operation of its broadcast competitions and the relevant licence conditions." On this occasion, no sanction was imposed.


References

{{Reflist 2007 controversies 2007 in British television Scandals in the United Kingdom Television controversies in the United Kingdom