Basta (TV Series)

''Basta'' was a Flemish television show aired in January and February 2011 on the Belgian channel Eén. The show was hosted by Neveneffecten and produced by Woestijnvis.

It was a mix between comedy, current affairs and crime. The show tried to give some of one's own medicine.

Although the show was a blockbuster, a second season was not made as Neveneffecten thought their approach would most probably not work anymore as they became famous.

Subjects

Recharge money from bank

In 2008 many Belgian banks got money from the government following the financial crisis of 2007–2008. This was however paid with tax money. ''Basta'' contacted all those banks and requested if they could recharge their money, which was estimated at 250 euros for each Belgian inhabitant. No bank did pay them, so ''Basta'' decided to take another approach: they stole staplers, hole punchers etc. from the desks.

Later, ''Basta'' founded a new bank: Fides Bank with a limited amount of money (only €150). Although there was a bank crisis, partially caused by mismanagement, many CEO's of those banks still got huge royalties. In same concept, Fides Bank paid their CEO's a royalty of €150 and went bankrupt. As they were a bank, they also requested the Belgian government to give 20 billion euros to save the company. Their request was ignored and classified.

Fake news

In June 2010 Woestijnvis was charged as they sent fake news items to the press. Woestijnvis did acknowledge this, but also told it was meant as part of a new show. It was the intention of ''Basta'' to verify if the media did check news items on trustworthy or not. ''Basta'' succeeded partially as some of their fake news items were indeed published by several media, but they were unmasked.

Mobistar Helpdesk

Residents complain about the helpdesk of many telecom operators. There are long wait times, repetitive questions, unwanted inquiries, different menus and submenus, calls just hung up by the agent, many transfers.

''Basta'' placed a container in front of the main entrance of Mobistar Evere and painted a telephone number on it. Furthermore, they created a calldesk with a similar setup as used at Mobistar. One of the security agents of Mobistar called the number with the request to move the container. ''Basta'' used same techniques as Mobistar such as long waiting times, different agents who always ask same questions, long menus etc. After many calls by the security agent, ''Basta'' removed the container a few hours later.

Call games

Some Belgian television channels had viewer phone call games where a caller could win money awards. The live submissions already proved there was some kind of cheating: the words to find were unknown by general public, math questions could not be solved with traditional mathematics, in case the callers could give some correct answers the question was changed, envelopes which contained the solution were quickly replaced.

''Basta'' could prove these games were indeed a fraud. De Neveneffecten found a job posing as host for such games and they asked Maxime De Winne to apply for the job and to go undercover. Maxime got the job and was a host for about 4 months where he used hidden cameras to record conversations with the management. Neveneffecten also hired a math expert: Gaetan De Weert. After some months, Gaetan was able to solve every math puzzle, but noticed the answer of the puzzle is incorrect in 16% of the cases due to miscalculation of the producers. Gaetan called the studio and was able to give the correct answer. He also said the show was a fraud and he was going to publish the solution key on the Internet, which he actually did.

The episode was aired on 17 January 2011 and caused national controversy. The channels vtm and 2BE decided to cancel the call games as from 18 January 2011. The broadcast did not have any effect in Wallonia where the games are still aired.

SABAM

SABAM is the Belgian association of authors, composers and publishers. SABAM got permission of the Belgian law to charge money when someone organizes an event where authorized music, plays, ... is used. SABAM is even allowed to do this even in case the composer is not a member of SABAM. In such cases, SABAM should give the money to the correct authoring company.

''Basta'' organized some parties without attendees and created some conditions which were free from SABAM charge, such as organizing a party in a room which was smaller than 1 square metre. According to SABAM, a fee has to be paid from 1 square metre. Furthermore, they organized a party with artists who do not exist. They made some music via improvisation and used different kitchen tools such as mixers, microwaves, packaging. In all cases, SABAM sent a bill and stated all their charges were legal. However, they only paid back the fee for the fake artists after ''Basta'' sent a formal complaint.

After airing, SABAM was compromised in the Belgian Senate.

Calf Willy

''Basta'' announced they were going to organize a barbecue with some of their friends. They showed a picture of Willy, a calf. During next week, the viewers could vote on their website if Willy could be slaughtered and eaten or not. Although the viewers choose not to kill Willy, ''Basta'' told the invitees they did eat Willy. As a result, many of the invitees felt guilty.

In reality, Willy was not killed. ''Basta'' proved that meateaters do not have a problem to eat an anonymous animal, but mostly refuse if they did know the beast.

Internet fraud

''Basta'' contacted a Nigerian imposter who claimed to sell gold. The man came to Belgium and his visit was recorded with a hidden camera. The members of ''Basta'' dressed up as an eccentric family, a dwarf as butler (who was partially paralyzed and had to ride on a pony), some rituals,... At the end, the (fake) police did a raid and the family was arrested whilst the imposter was present. The imposter was immediately set free as there was no warrant for him.{{Cite web , url=http://www.een.be/programmas/basta/pest-eens-een-internetfraudeur , title=Fraud an imposter , access-date=2012-02-28 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317205504/http://www.een.be/programmas/basta/pest-eens-een-internetfraudeur , archive-date=2012-03-17 , url-status=dead

References

Flemish television shows
Current affairs shows
2011 Belgian television series debuts
2011 Belgian television series endings
Investigative journalism
2010s Belgian television series
Eén original programming
Television controversies in Belgium