Current Affairs

TV phone-ins: Have we been ripped off?

ICSTIC the premium rate services regulator is to introduce new rules in relation to TV quizzes. This has been sparked by a number of highly publicised incidences involving suspect ions of fraud.

The rules being added to existing safeguards are:

A viewer’s chances of ‘acceptance or rejection’ must be permanently shown and updated at no more than 10 minute intervals.
A presenter or voice-over must explain pricing information at least minutes intervals.
Participants must receive warnings about costs for every £10 spent in a day.

The tougher rules have come into effect today 2nd May 2007 after ICSTIC have received a record number of complaints about the way in which some quizzes and phone ins were conducted.

On one show viewers were asked to test in the correct answer to multiply choice question and they would be entered into a prize draw, although 10,000 texts (charged at £1 each) were not included.

Channel 4’s Richard and Judy, ITV programmes The X Factor and I’m a celebrity… Get me Out of Here! And BBC’s Saturday Kitchen have all faced accusations they misled viewers.

ICSTIC are currently have 20 investigations under way into TV phone-ins although some relate to the same shows. So we are expecting some answers shortly.

If you would like to bar calls to premium rate numbers from your business, speak to your IBNetworks account manager, who will advise on the best way to do this.