Channel 4 is to stop using phone-in competitions in its programmes for profit-making purposes after the scandal over the Richard & Judy programme.

The broadcaster revealed yesterday that 2.9 million calls to the couple’s You Say, We Pay quiz, 42 per cent of all entries since September 2004, had no chance of winning. The improperly handled calls raised £2.2 million in revenue. An internal investigation has found no evidence that any member of staff had any direct involvement in or knowledge of the improper handling of viewer calls. Full refunds will be offered to cheated viewers.

Channel 4 will now forgo an estimated £3 million in annual profits from premium-rate services. Phone voting will continue on Big Brother but viewers will be charged only sufficient to cover the cost of the call and any charitable donation. Text message voting has already been abandoned.

Any profits raised from phone entries for the Deal or No Deal show will be donated to charity. Channel 4’s new monitoring regime has discovered that early callers to the programme’s premium-rate lines had enjoyed an advantage.

Blue Peter faces new scandal

It has emerged that production staff ignored the result of a viewer poll to choose a name for the Blue Peter cat last year

Background

• BBC fined £50,000 for Blue Peter scandal

• BBC boss and the Queen’s ‘huff’

• Time to hang up on TV phone-ins

• GMTV cheated 25m of its phone-in callers

Competitions will return on programmes but without a premium rate entry. Anne Bulford, group finance director of Channel 4, said: “Public trust in these competitions has been severely undermined and we do not want to risk further our relationship with our viewers.”

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