Channel 4 Reveals Big Brother Charity Beneficiaries
Channel 4 has revealed that the charities that will receive the money from its Big Brother eviction telephone votes this year are Crisis, Help the Hospices and the Samaritans.
The broadcaster announced last week that it would not be profiting from the phone votes (see Channel 4 Will Not Profit From Big Brother Phone Votes), in a bid to restore its image amidst the glut of telephone vote scandals – including its own (see Big Bro Blunder Signals Further Woe For C4) – and the Ofcom ruling against last year’s Celebrity Big Brother.
The price of the Big Brother 8 phone votes have been cut from 50p to 25p, with 10p from each 25p telephone vote cast to be donated to charity. The total will be split equally between the three charities, with the remaining money said to just cover Channel 4’s costs of administering the eviction votes.
The new 25p charge applies to calls from BT lines – calls from other fixed networks and mobile networks may vary at the operators’ discretion.
The first eviction vote from the hormone-charged house will take place this Friday 8 June.
As with every previous Big Brother series, Channel 4 has appointed Electoral Reform Services who will be overseeing the voting process. ERS will attend each vote night and confirm that the viewers’ vote as reported by Channel 4’s suppliers is the result that presenter Davina McCall announces on air.
In recent months the major broadcasters have been involved in various phone-in voting scandals (see Broadcast Minister Hints At TV Phone-In Ban), with Ofcom now investigating more than 20 shows (see Ofcom Announces Phone-In Investigation) and premium phone lines regulator Icstis introducing new regulations (see Icstis Gets Tough With New TV Quiz Rules).
Just prior to the start of the new series of Big Brother, which has so far seen its viewing figures go from more than five million to around three million adults on average, Ofcom ruled that C4 had serious compliance issues during last year’s race row Celebrity Big Brother, forcing the broadcaster to air a series of apologies (see Ofcom Announces Celebrity Big Brother Ruling).
Channel 4: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com