Q: What will regulators do to easy phone-in comps?

There is an interesting little overlap here surely. Ofcom are not responsible for competitions and lotteries per se - and as such, why are they clamping down on the perceived easiness of competition questions? I know the answer to that question, but you know what I mean - ultimately, it surely comes down to the Lotteries Commission or whoever is responsible (I know they're there for the National Lottery), rather than the broadcasting regulator?

The point is - it shouldn't be a lottery because it's not licensed. It's a competition because it's requires skill to enter and therefore it's not an equal opportunity like a lottery is. It's why when radio stations say "caller on Line 14 has to answer a question to win" - if they just picked line 14 and said they had won then it would be an unfair lottery.

Of course broadcasters didn't want to put anyone off entering - which is why the questions have got easier and easier...it borders on becoming a lottery because it's so easy that it's no longer a competition because you effectively need no skill to enter...but under the rules you could argue it's still a question...and "only easy if you know the answer."

I certainly understand that. I did a bit of selective reading of that articule and thought it was Ofcom who were clamping down rather than the Gambling Commission.

Nevertheless, a point I was vaguely stabbing at does stand... the use of ridiculously easy qualifying questions to gain revenue and interest is not confined to television. While some television programmes are clearly guilty of this, why is the Commission only looking to clamp down in this area? It just seems an odd twist to me to be pulling up broadcasters for an issue as if they are the only culprits.

True enough - I suppose the clamp down comes as they're now a mass market and every light entertainment/regional news programme seems to have a competition these days - many with premium rate phone numbers so I suppose they want to try and close a loop hole.

Though the easy questions have been in magazines for years - but I've always held the opinion that it's too too much hassle to have to enter (unless it's a call this number compo) - but as I said before...every TV programme seems to have one now, and the point of running a competition is fast becoming...well pointless.

I have seen a number of these things where not only is the answer giga-obvious, but the presenter reading out the question also unsubtly indicates the correct answer by stressing it or something like that. Hoepfully they'll clamp down on that too.

Far more worrying is the tv channel on Sky 166 - "the Great British Quiz". It seems to have an easy question yet whenever anyone rings with the "right" answer they are told it is wrong! We went through every possible answer you could get from the screen and waited for people to ring in with those answers and still they said they were "wrong".

It seems you ring up (costs £1) then keep you holding (£1 per min) until the "dog barks" (every 1 minute - or more) and then someone has chance to answer the question - every one else is cut off.

I saw this earlier at a friend's house, I don't have Sky but can anyone tell me if it is still the "Add the miles" question? It was driving us all mad!

It is clearly a scam and I'm amazed it is allowed on air.

Most of those game channels were there's this blonde female with two brian cells hosting a puzzle that goes on for hours look like a con, definally more than an innocent easy question on mainstream tv. I'm surprised Ofcom isn't investigating into these.

They had one on last night about counting the angles:

http://img14.imgspot.com/u/05/181/03/angles.jpg

So I counted them up... 17. Someone rang in and said 17 and they were wrong.

So then I thought they must be including the angles you can make by adding individual angles - 32. Wrong.

Then they gave the clue that the answer was between 40 and 60, and that the chances of guessing it correctly were 1 in 21 (which I was surprised they got right). So I guessed they were even including exterior angles, so for example the top left corner has a 90° angle on the interior and a 270° angle on the exterior. That makes 52 in total and that was the right answer.

So it all depended on the definition of "angle" - something they didn't specify too well. So just because you think you have a right answer, it might not be their right answer.

David

PS I'd like to make it known that I don't normally watch these channels, but my friend does and he wanted to know the answer

The one I saw yesterday went like this - the following were presented as a blue motorway direction sign with the standard motorway logo on the left and the arrow pointing right.

Cardiff 7 miles
Swansea 33 miles
Pembroke 76 miles

then it said underneath the sign:

Q. Add the miles.

116 was "wrong", 3, 4, 119, 120, 76, 79 and 80 were also "wrong" (I can't be bothered to justify them here) and so were many other figures that the four of us could not see how on earth people were coming up with them.

It drove us mad for over an hour (I was stuck at a firends house watching this) and still can't see how they can justify any other answer.

Any ideas? !

This one was posted on DigitalSpy the other week
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/stash.jpg
Apparantly the answer was 876 or something!

The long drawn out nature of these shows is just so annoying, how they can possibly feature one puzzle for 2 hours I don't know!

Here's one that is currently being shown. They haven't even got a blonde girl hosting this one, instead a scary looking bloke
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/game1.jpg

He just sits there in silence for minutes on end.
How does a channel like this manage to make a profit!
Whoever said Digital TV would increase the quality of british tv!

They make a profit because it costs £1 or more to call in, they leave people hanging on hold for ages - and they don't get selected and cut off! The answers to the questions make "321" clues look easy - to the point that the answers a very, very dubious. They are all a con, and my letter to Ofcom did no good - they say they have no power to stop it! Yet they tinker in all sorts of other things! These tv stations should be shut down.