What fair deal?

What started as a single premium rate 'irregularity' allegedly involving the Richard and Judy show's "You Say We Pay" quiz has now turned into a scandal that threatens to overwhelm the whole premium rate industry along with robbing a good deal of credibility from the major broadcasters.

Most broadcasters initially claimed that there were no such irregularities with the premium rate services they have been involved with (after supposedly independent investigations), but there now appears to be serious problems with such services on three main terrestrial channels (ITV, Channel 4, Five) together with an issue relating to the BBC's Saturday Kitchen.

Therefore it's now pretty evident that the majority of broadcasters haven't been strict enough with their enforcement of rules relating to premium rate phone lines. Whether it has been simply ignorance, or alternatively a case of overreliance or (even worse) collusion between broadcasters and telecoms companies, something drastic really needs to be done about this.

But since some of these so-called irregularities may have been occuring for months (if not years) before being exposed, and together with the fact that there's likely to be at least one irregularity left undiscovered for each one being made public, any suspicion surrounding such services is unlikely to go away regardless of any suggested regulatory improvements.

The very nature of interactivity being based on the use of premium rate phone lines is to make money out of viewers, and the basic assumption seems to be that as long as the callers know what they are doing (ie. aware that they are entering a competition by making an expensive phone call which has to be paid for) then it is acceptable for such to take place.

However it's still arguable that having an alternative free method of entry for competitions - as required to avoid any quiz falling foul of the gambling regulations - is in a sense an even bigger deception in that all the participants could have theoretically used the free entry route instead. (But of course that defeats the broadcasters' money-making objective.)

Maybe it is indeed time for broadcasters to forget about exploiting premium rate quizzes or general interactivity as an easy revenue stream, because viewers may end up distrusting them by their very nature.

And in all honesty, who can blame them.