By John Leyden for The
Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.
Thousands every week for the last four years paid £1.80 each to
enter a weekday multiple-choice quiz, offering prizes of up to
£20,000, run by the breakfast TV program. According to an
investigation by the BBC's Panorama many had no chance of
winning because a shortlist of 20 people with the correct entries
was picked 45 minutes before lines officially closed at 9am.
The alleged ruse brought in an estimated £45,000 a day from
viewers of the lightweight breakfast news magazine, or a total of
£40m over the four years the quiz operated. The quiz was managed
for the soft-news sofa-sitting specialists by telecoms services
firm Opera Interactive Technology. Opera sales director Mark
Nuttall allegedly sent an email to workers at the firm telling them
"make sure they [GMTV] never find out you are picking the winners
early!" in 2003. Ofcom and premium phone line watchdog ICSTIS are
expected to launch an investigation into the allegations.
GMTV said it "knew nothing" of apparent irregularities by Opera.
It denies any impropriety.
"GMTV knew nothing of this and is shocked to hear of these
allegations," according to a statement from GMTV. "Just over a
month ago GMTV instructed the city accountancy firm Deloitte to
carry out a full, independent review of GMTV and Opera's current
interactive systems and processes.
"The review has now been completed and we are confident, on the
basis of Deloitte's findings and our own research, that our
competitions are being operated fully in accordance with the codes
- and that no finalists are being selected before lines have
closed.
"We are investigating further but do anticipate bringing back
our competitions as soon as possible," it added.
In a statement, Opera Interactive Technology said it had removed
staf implicated in the alleged scandal pending an investigation. It
said it has revamped its competition entry handling policy since
the start of March and "all competition contestant entries
throughout the entire competition period are now considered equally
and fairly, whether handled directly by Opera Interactive
Technology or by its telecommunications partners, using a
randomised computer programme."
"Opera has in no way benefited financially from any errors in
procedure in the past and will continue to keep its processes in
line with any future OFCOM or ICSTIS guidelines," it added.
GMTV admitted that it had become the target of angry calls from
its five million viewers as a result of the alleged fraud. Details
of the allegation were due to be screened in an episode of
Panorama, dubbed TV's Dirty Secrets, due to air
on BBC1 at 8.30 on Monday.
Previous targets of complaints over TV phone-ins have included
Richard and Judy, talent search the X
Factor and even childrens' program Blue
Peter.
© The Register
2007
