Sky‘s chief executive James Murdoch has said that the broadcaster avoided running premium-rate quiz programmes because they “felt grubby.” Talking to the Royal Television Society’s magazine, Television, Murdoch stated “We took the view that [premium rate quizzes] were taking advantage of people and that our customers deserved better than that. We have a betting business and a lot of work goes into informing people about how those services work and putting the appropriate protections in place. But to us premium-rate quiz stuff always felt grubby, trying to get an extra nickel out of everyone. We didn’t feel comfortable in it.”

Murdoch added that Sky’s “discomfort has been borne out” and claimed that premium rate quizzes “undermine” the relationship between a business and its customers “because basically it is just taking advantage, and it’s pretty sleazy.” Of course, this comes on the back of a very grubby war of words with Virgin Media, and presumably is an attempt to instill some confidence back into the public. Has it worked?
[via DS]