Television phone-ins have been the subject of much controversy in the past year. The BBC suspended senior members of staff while it investigated incidents relating to Blue Peter and resignations have followed. The director of GMTV’s phone-in competitions, Paul Corley, resigned in July when GMTV admitted that its quizzes were not being conducted fairly. Channel 4 announced that it would no longer make a profit from running premium-rate service (PRS) competitions. This has led to Ofcom and The Independent Committee For The Supervision Of Standards Of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS – now known as Phone Pay Plus (PPP)) coming into the limelight and their powers of intervention and interplay being tested.
Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for telecoms pursuant to the Communications Act 2003. It has two over-arching duties contained in section 31 of the Act: furthering the interests of citizens, in relation to communications matters, and furthering the interests of consumers in relevant markets by promoting competition.
