Channel 4 drops racing phone-in
Channel 4 has suspended phone-in competitions in its horseracing coverage during Cheltenham Week because of a problem with its phone service supplier, it announced today.
The decision is the latest in the TV industry in the premium-rate phone-in row. Channel 4 said it had identified a 'minor technical problem' during a live audit.
The broadcaster said the problem came to light during live audits of the two phone-in competitions in Channel 4's weekly racing show The Morning Line. The specialist conducting the review found a problem with a competition in last Saturday's programme.
Promotions for The Monkey Business competition told viewers on-screen that it would close at 8.35am. But Channel 4 said: 'Due to a technical fault, however, which mis-routed some calls, the phone services supplier, Eckoh, was unable to change the message on the phone lines to indicate to callers that the competition was closed.
'Around 100 calls were received after the cut-off point. These calls have been logged and the callers will be reimbursed.'
A Channel 4 spokesperson said: 'Given the circumstances, we have taken the decision to take our phone-in competitions off air during Cheltenham Week as a precautionary measure.
'We plan to have these competitions back on air as soon as we are satisfied that the services can operate reliably. We'd like to apologise to those affected.'
Premium-rate phone watchdog Icstis is probing six shows over potential phone-in scams involving quizzes and voting lines.
They are Channel 4's Richard and Judy, the BBC's Saturday Kitchen, ITV's X Factor, Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Soapstar Superstar and I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
Today it was alleged that David Gest was booted off the last series of the jungle show by mistake, after more than 30,000 phone votes for Gest, 48, were lost. ITV has denied the accusation, contained in leaked emails seen by The Sun newspaper, saying all votes were counted and verified.
Last week, broadcaster Five suspended all programming involving premium rate numbers after admitting some of its competition winners were faked. Icstis said it would be prepared to refer evidence of a criminal offence to police if it found any.
The row first blew up with Channel 4's Richard And Judy tea-time show. ITV has brought back Dancing On Ice and ITV Play to its terrestrial channels after they were cleared in an independent review.
But not even the Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University was able to solve one of ITV's maths quizzes on the late-night Make Your Play show.
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