Sunday, January 28, 2007

Call-in quiz television shows border on the fraudulent and should be
reclassified as gambling, MPs have concluded. The Culture, Media and Sport
Select Committee condemned the "unscrupulous practices" of some of the quiz
shows, which have been criticised for misleading viewers. Up to a million
people a night watch shows in which presenters invite viewers to call a
premium-rate number and answer a simple question for rewards of up to
£100,000. The revenue raised from the calls is considerable, with ITV set to
make £20 million in profit this year from its quiz show division, ITV Play.
The committee was told of allegations of shabby practices by producers and
broadcasters, including suggestions that call handling procedures had, in
the past, been manipulated to deny callers a chance to answer. In one
episode of The Mint, an ITV1 show, 400,000 callers phoned over four hours,
but only one in 400 had a chance of getting through. Viewers have also
complained about overly cryptic questions. Ofcom, which is investigating the
shows, recently ruled that Quizmania, on ITV Play, was in breach of the
broadcasting code for posing a question about items commonly found in a
women's handbag. Answers included a balaclava and Rawlplugs. The committee
report, issued today, is expected to conclude that "any practice of
misleading viewers about call volumes or of blocking calls would be more
than unfair: it would be fraudulent and should be punished under criminal
law. It would also be a disgrace to the Call TV quiz industry." It says: "We
believe that Call TV quiz shows generally look and feel like gambling,
whether or not they will fall within the definition of gambling under the
Gambling Act 2005." The committee will urge the Government to examine this
as a matter of urgency. If quizzes are reclassified as lotteries, regulators
could insist on at least 20 per cent of sales going to good causes. The MPs
concluded that there was a lack of transparency in the phone-in process.
They recommended that "viewers must be given more information allowing them
to have a reasonable understanding of the odds of getting through to the
studio". Odds of getting on-air could be displayed on screen, they said,
adding that a study should be made of how addictive the shows were. Some
callers made 60 attempts within eight minutes. Icstis, the premium-line
regulator, should make it a requirement for broadcasters to tell callers how
much they are spending, the MPs said. They also called on Ofcom to "require
broadcasters to inform viewers that solutions may not be as simple as they
seem". Ministers want Ofcom to draw up proposals for a new regulatory
framework. Shaun Woodward, the Broadcasting Minister, said: "There are
serious issues to be addressed." Both he and the committee accepted that the
quizzes were popular with viewers and were likely to become a vital source
of revenue for commercial broadcasters. Yet the committee noted that "it is
doubtful whether anyone would describe them as high-quality programming and
they are certainly not creative television".