BBC suspends phone competitions

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6904516.stm

What is shocking is that all this is only coming out now, months after this all kicked off first time round

Here are the mistakes that have come to light

COMIC RELIEF - 16 MARCH 2007 ON BBC ONE
In a section of the appeal programme, viewers were invited to donate money to Comic Relief and were informed that by calling in, they could win prizes that belonged to a famous couple.

The first two callers taken on air gave incorrect answers. The other waiting callers were lost and a third caller was heard on air successfully answering the question. This caller was in fact not a viewer but a member of the production team.

TMI - 16 SEPTEMBER 2006 ON BBC TWO AND CBBC
Following a production problem with a live competition, viewers were led to believe that a member of the audience was involved and won a competition open to the public.

In fact, the caller was a member of the production team. The programme team failed to seek proper advice before running the competition.

SPORT RELIEF - 15 JULY 2006 ON BBC ONE
Viewers were led to believe that a member of the public was involved in and won a competition open to the public, whereas the caller was in fact a member of the production team.

The BBC has found evidence that this action was planned as a contingency in advance and that the physical infrastructure of the competition meant that it would have been impossible for it to be run as was described on air, and warnings about potential difficulties in conducting the competition were ignored.

This incident was not referred up nor was it declared to a BBC audit in March.

CHILDREN IN NEED - 18 NOVEMBER 2005 ON BBC ONE SCOTLAND
In a segment called Raven: The Island in the BBC's Children in Need appeal's Scotland broadcast in 2005, viewers were led to believe that a phone-in competition, open to the audience, had been won by a viewer.

In fact, due to a technical mistake, calls from the public did not get through and the name of a fictitious winner was read out on air.

THE LIZ KERSHAW SHOW - 2005/6 ON BBC 6 MUSIC
In pre-recorded programmes, presented as if they were live, a competition was announced that appeared to feature genuine listeners phoning in to take part, one of whom would win a prize on air.

In fact, in recorded programmes, there were no competitions or prizes and all of the callers were actually members of production team and their friends. A new producer took over the programme in December 2006 and stopped the practices as a matter of priority.

WHITE LABEL - WORLD SERVICE UNTIL APRIL 2006
A weekly pop music preview programme on the English Service. On more than one occasion, a fake winner was announced for the CD prize when no winning entries had actually been received.

It's not clear though, is this suspension just premium rate compeititions or all competitions?

On the same lines, but different, BBC are also suspending the commissioning of programmes from RDF following Queengate - seemingly blaming one individual producer rather than accepting a mistake as just a mistake and acknowledging their are absolutely no rules which say scenes have to be shown in sequence in trailers - or even programmes - for that matter.

all the events occured before the Blue Peter thing came out, with the expcetion of the Comic Relief one.

The one I find most distrubing however it the LIZ KERSHAW show where it appears that a completely make believe quiz was taking place as opposed to morons panicking when their equipment broke down.

What phone number does 6music use again... oh yes an 08700 number. Funny that.

I read in the Metro today Flog It! also had something wrong with the way it showed stuff?

Aren't 08700 local rate...?

0870 numbers are charged at a "National Rate" - I think it's around 9p a minute. 0845 numbers are charged at a "Local Rate" - they're around 4p a minute.

No wonder I never win the Daily Politics quiz!

This was briefly discussed here at the time. Some idiot even said they should have used a fake caller.

They can still make a profit on these though, only a few pence a call - but it all adds up.

Oh, my GOD! This is just pure unacceptable for BBC!

I already pay for my license, and this is WHAT THE PUBLIC GETS for phone in competition! This is just pure absured, and disgusted............

Thank god Panorama exposed the TV's Dirtiest Secrets........

For those who don't look at the BBC One general news thread (and I normally don't)...

Fun for BBC Scotland viewers tonight. One of the phone-in scandals illustrated in the headline sequence featured a BBC Scotland optout from Children in Need with Jackie Bird. 10 seconds later Jackie Bird comes on air to do the Scottish headline sequence.

Much better though the licence fee is (largely) spent on programming and the competition prizes (won by the production team) are paid for via the phone proceeds - so it's the people stupid enough to "enter" them who pay for the prizes.