“DEAL OR NO DEAL: DEAL OF COURSE” “YOU SAY YOU PAY”

With GMTV pushing for redundancies as a fall out from the phone in scandals, it is Channel 4’s turn to face up to its punishment. OFCOM has fined the broadcaster £1.5 million for allowing viewers to enter phone competitions they could never win. The programmes in question, “Deal or No Deal” and Richard and Judy’s “You Say We Pay”, generated £25.24 million in revenue, derived from 17.75 million calls during the period under investigation. The “trading account” looks like this:

RICHARD AND JUDY: FINE £1 MILLION
DEAL OR NO DEAL: FINE £500,000
REFUNDS: £82,000
CHARITY PAYMENT: £600,000
TOTAL: £2,182,000

REVENUE GENERATED: £25,240,000
FINES ETC: £2,182,000
BALANCE: £23,058,000

Not exactly calculated to Price Waterhouse standards, but I’m sure you get the picture.

Even with competition pay outs, the phone in’s still netted Channel 4 upwards of £23 million.

Not a bad night’s work for fiddling the public.