2007 British premium-rate phone-in scandal

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.[1] In October 2006, ICSTIS received 2,635 complaints regarding the seventh series of Channel 4'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.[2] Between late 2006 and early 2007, Ofcom recorded breaches against broadcasters regarding the fairness of television quiz shows and competitions, including TWC,[3] Channel 4,[4][5] ITV[6][7] and Channel 5.[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 and other unauthorised broadcasts.[8] Gamecast's licence was ultimately revoked in April 2007 after failing to pay the fine.[9]

On 18 February 2007, the Mail on Sunday reported that it had received leaked emails regarding the television programme Richard & Judy, 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. 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.[10] 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.[10] 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.[11] 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 - 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.[12]

On 28 February, it was also reported that ITV had admitted to overcharging viewers via its "red button" voting service during the third series of The X Factor - resulting in £200,000 in extra charges to viewers - and had reported their findings to ICSTIS.[13]

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."[14] On 6 March, ITV suspended all premium-rate telephone services,[15] though certain services resumed on 13 March.[16] Though the BBC and Channel 5 initially stated that they had no plans to suspend PRS,[17] Channel 5 did so on 8 March, reporting that on five separate occasions, after their programme BrainTeaser 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".[18] Channel 4 suspended PRS following revelations of a "glitch" preventing callers from being entered into a competition on the racing programme The Morning Line.[19]

The first radio stations were named in the controversy on 12 March, after Virgin Radio admitted to inviting viewers to call a pre-recorded programme, and LBC being investigated for allegedly not revealing the price of phone calls to listeners.[20]

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.[21]

The BBC revealed that two of its children's programmes were affected: Blue Peter 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.[22]

Other ITV programmes that were named as being investigated included Soapstar Superstar, Dancing On Ice, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Gameshow Marathon and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.[23][24]

In March 2007, ITV appointed Deloitte to conduct a "comprehensive review" into the broadcaster's use of PRS in its programming.[25]

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.[26] [27]

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, Andy Duncan and Jane Lighting were all in attendance, to discuss their attempt to "restore public trust in broadcasting".

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".[25] 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.[25]

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.

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,[31] Channel 5's BrainTeaser,[32] and GCap's Secret Sound, which was broadcast on 30 different radio stations.[33] 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.[34][35][36] 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.[37]

The 2004 and 2005 British Comedy Awards 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 been presented, but viewers were still being asked to vote.[38]^{: 1.4(i) : 1.4(ii)} 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.[38]^: 1.4(iii) The reason for the switch has never been identified, though two theories were investigated by Ofcom. The first theory was that Robbie Williams, who presented the award, would appear on the programme only if he could present it to Ant and Dec;[38]^: 4.9 the second theory was that employees of ITV instructed the switch (Takeaway was an ITV show, whereas Catherine Tate was broadcast on BBC One).[38]^: 4.10 Ofcom expressed its "[disappointment] at the lack of cooperation it received" from members of the production.[38]^: 4.11

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 was still inviting viewers to vote.[39] 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.[39] 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.[39] ITV acknowledged that junior members of staff who objected to these actions were "firmly sat upon" by senior producers.[39]^: 1.12 Ofcom opined that the programme makers "showed their total contempt for ITV1’s audience"[39]^: 1.20 in manipulating the votes in this way, and described their behaviour as "absolutely reprehensible".[39]^: 1.20

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.[40]

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[41][42][43]
• 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[41][42][43][44]
• Geographical selection - entrants being unaware that the competition was not being conducted in their area, meaning they stood no chance of winning[42]
• Editorial selection - where winners were chosen based on their "suitability to be on screen",[42][45] or where staff deliberately selected entrants who had guessed the answer incorrectly, in order to prolong the competition[33]
• 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[46]

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,[47] eight editions of Dermot O'Leary[48] and 31 different broadcasts on ITV2's timeshift service, ITV2+1, broadcast an hour later.[49] 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.[40]

The BBC were sanctioned for repeating a falsified competition from Blue Peter (see above) on CBBC.[37]

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.[45]

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-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.[40]

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.

Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, 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."[54]

After the Deloitte report was published in October 2007, Ant and Dec, 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.[55] This was seconded by director of ITV Michael Grade, describing the pair's credits as executive producers as "kind of a vanity credit".[56] Ant and Dec confirmed in a statement that any profits from the next series of Saturday Night Takeaway would be donated to charity.[57] Later, in May 2008, they stated that they would be returning their wrongfully awarded British Comedy Award from 2005.[58] Catherine Tate, whose comedy sketch show was the rightful winner, explained on an episode of The Graham Norton Show that she had finally received her award, and joked about confronting Declan Donnelly in a supermarket.[59]

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".[60]

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.[61]