Sir Alistair Graham, chairman of premium rate services regulator ICSTIS, said that “viewers and consumers” must never again be subjected to irregularities in participation television programmes. Amen to that! This comes on the back of the fines for Five’s Brainteaser and the fine dished out to Richard & Judy’s You Say We Pay quiz.

“Viewers become consumers when they pay to participate in radio and television phone-in competitions, text voting and TV quizzes,” Sir Alistair said today at the launch of the regulator’s annual report. “Those consumers then have specific rights and these were not respected by the industry. No one can doubt the seriousness of the issue that we, along with Ofcom, attach to this issue and our adjudications. There has been a worrying upsurge in complaints about TV phone-ins and competitions over the last year. Never again must viewers and consumers be treated like this. It will not be tolerated.

“As for other services, in 2006/07 we used our Emergency powers nine times to shut down services. We also barred two individuals from operating premium rate services for between 18-24 months. As an independent regulator, we want to set out clear expectations and work with all parties within the industry to ensure Code compliance. This is why we have created an industry support team and compliance unit to develop best practice and ‘design-in’ consumer safeguards from the outset. The public should be able to use premium rate services with absolute confidence and should never feel cheated.” [Mof Gimmers]