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Nine shows on four channels (BBC, ITV, C4 and C5) have recently been the subject of concern. The shows include both dedicated TV quiz shows and those involving premium rate phone calls within the programme. Viewers who called in to vote, or take part in competitions, had been misled. The House of Commons Culture Media and Sport Select Committee had already initiated an inquiry (October 2006) into this issue and, on 25 January 2007, the Committee published its Third Report, on Call TV Quiz Shows. It concluded that stronger consumer protection is required. Ofcom published a consultation on “participation...

The Gambling Act 2005 is due to come fully into force on 1 September 2007. The Act, for the first time, provides for licences for “…remote gambling” (Section 67). There is also a new regime for broadcast advertisements for gambling (Part 16). If the operators are based in the UK, an operating licence must be obtained “to authorise the provision of gambling via remote communication e.g. via interactive television or the Internet”. Further, new rules concerning gambling advertising in the UK have been announced by the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising...

Scottish Television, a commercial public service broadcaster, was found to be in breach of the Broadcasting Code by Ofcom, the UK communications regulator. The Code prohibits the promotion in programmes of products and services (with the exception of programme-related material), and the giving of undue prominence to products and services. Undue prominence may arise through reference to a product where there is no editorial justification, or through the manner in which a product appears in a programme. Scottish Television is owned by the Scottish Media Group (SMG). Its news programme included an...

It is part of Ofcom’s duty to protect vulnerable consumers and to regulate inappropriate behaviour by some providers. The regulation of Premium Rate Services falls into this category, as provided for by the Communications Act 2003, Sections 120 - 124. In non-statutory language, PRS “offer consumers some form of content, product or service accessed via fixed or mobile telephones and charged to the user’s telephone bill”. The “Premium Rate Services Condition” regulates the provision, content, promotion and marketing of PRS and the providers have to comply with directions made by the code’s enforcement...

The UK media regulator, Ofcom, has found ITV to be in breach of the Ofcom standards code in relation to its news reporting on 3 March 2006 of an interview with the Prime Minister concerning the role of God in his decision to go to war in Iraq. Rule 5.1 of the Broadcasting Code requires that news must be reported “with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality”, and complaints had been made by ten viewers that this rule had been breached. The Prime Minister had been interviewed by Michael Parkinson, a veteran chat show host, for the Parkinson programme. Clips from the interview were supplied...