(From “The Times”) The chief executive of Channel 4 said yesterday that it would sack the premium-rate phone supplier Eckoh, after software problems involving the company forced the broadcaster to axe phone-in competitions due to run during the Cheltenham Festival.

Andy Duncan admitted that Channel 4 had uncovered yet another problem with a premium-rate phone-in on a Saturday morning racing programme, but its account of events was disputed by its underfire supplier.

That capped a dramatic day for Eckoh, whose chief executive went to police yesterday. He asked for an investigation into e-mails that were the basis for allegations that votes were miscounted at a key stage on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here. Eckoh described the e-mails as “maliciously fabricated”.

Channel 4’s decision also came as ITV announced the withdrawal of its ITV Play phone-in quiz channel. It is being replaced by a time-delayed ITV2 — but will continue to broadcast phone-ins under the ITV Play banner late at night on ITV1. The decision saves ITV £7 million a year because the Play channel was not drawing in enough viewers.

The Channel 4 boss was forced to reveal the latest phone-in scandal in front of MPs on the Culture Select Committee, which affected Saturday morning’s edition of The Morning Line, a racing magazine programme. His appearance before MPs — which was followed by similar questions for his counterparts at ITV and Five — was dominated by the call-in row.

Mr Duncan admitted that just over 100 people were wrongly charged 50p each after being allowed to call after the 8.35am deadline because of a “one-off minor technical glitch”. In evidence to MPs, he said: “We will also pull phone-in competitions for our Cheltenham coverage this week. When we do return, it will probably be with a different supplier.”

Channel 4 insiders said that the error had been discovered by an internal auditor who had been monitoring the phone-in — but a clearly frustrated Eckoh disputed Channel 4’s account. Eckoh said it had identified the error and informed the on-site observer and went on to blame Channel 4 for the overcharging.

“The way Channel 4 asked for this service to be set up means that these callers would still have been charged at the same premium rate even if the correct audio message had been played,” the company said.

Meanwhile, Eckoh and ITV fought back against allegations that David Gest was wrongly voted off ITV1’s I’m A Celebrity . . . on November 30. The Sun newspaper quoted leaked e-mails alleging that “over 30,000 votes come in late to save David” but Eckoh, the programme’s call handler, said that the e-mails were fake. The Sun declined to comment yesterday.

Michael Grade, ITV’s new chairman, was also questioned on the subject by MPs on the Culture committee yesterday. Appearing after Mr Duncan, Mr Grade said the allegation was “very serious” but said that he was “very surprised that they [ The Sun] put out that story after the information they were provided with”.

The ITV boss admitted that employees had failed to understand that phone-ins represented the only time that the broadcaster had a direct connection with its viewers. “Have we understood that relationship as a company? Clearly we haven’t — and we must correct that.”

Jane Lighting, the chief executive of Five, said she was “very shaken” after it emerged that the names of some winning contestants of Five phone-in show Brainteaser were made up. The broadcaster is holding its own enquiry, but she told MPs that she would “need to take action” if the probe concluded that programme maker Endemol was at fault.

Posted on March 15th, 2007 by lbraum
Filed under: UK, Call-In TV, all