End Of Year Round Up: Television
2007 saw television’s dirty laundry hung out after numerous TV phone-in scandals, beginning with Channel 4’s behemoth reality franchise, Big Brother, being thrust into the spotlight following tens of thousands of complaints about racist abuse on Celebrity Big Brother (see Big Brother Racism Complaints Reach An Estimated 20,000).
Carphone Warehouse pulled its sponsorship, and complaints soared past the 30,000 mark, making it the most complained about television programme in UK broadcasting history (see Big Bro Finale Crashes Out To Top Gear).
By May, Ofcom announced there had been a serious failure within Channel 4’s compliance procedures for the series.
The regulator ruled that the broadcaster had contravened the broadcasting code, with an airing of apologies at the beginning of the launch episode of the next series of Big Brother, the following day’s repeat and the first eviction show as punishment (see Ofcom Announces Celebrity Big Brother Ruling).
Later in the month, Ofcom published its discussion document on a new Public Service Publisher (see Ofcom Set To Pave The Way For New Media Entity), saying it would act as a commissioner of new media content focused on meeting public purposes, and could offer a rich new media experience for users (see Ofcom Publishes PSP Discussion Document).
February saw the launch of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Media brand (see Virgin Media Launches Today), before the eruption of an ongoing feud between the company and rival, BSkyB.
Sky asked Virgin to sign a new channel carriage deal for its basic channels, which Virgin claimed was ‘incredibly overpriced’. This lead to Sky withdrawing the channels (see Sky Anytime? Not For Virgin Media Cable Homes), and sparked a very public war between Branson and Murdoch.
By May, BSkyB’s 17.9% stake in ITV was referred to the Competition Commission by the Department of Trade and Industry (see Sky’s Stake In ITV Referred To Competition Commission).
By August, Virgin Media had lost 70,300 subscribers across its four cable and mobile services in the three months to the end of June.
The cable operator added 2,200 new cable TV subscribers during the quarter, saying that the removal of Sky’s basic channels in March resulted in it losing 40,000 customers across its range of services (see Virgin Media Loses 70,300 Subscribers In Q2).
By the end of 2007, the Competition Commission had recommended that Sky be forced to sell down its 17.9% stake in ITV to under 7.5%.
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform published the Competition Commission report, which found that the acquisition could be “expected to operate against the public interest” (see Competition Commission Recommends Sky Sell Down ITV Stake).
2007 saw Ofcom complete its review on television advertising of junk food to kids, and the regulator began phasing in the scheduling restrictions for all channels (see Ofcom To Phase In HFSS Restrictions).
The IPA, amongst other bodies, expressed disappointed at Ofcom’s decision to extend the restrictions for HFSS advertising aimed at children (see IPA Claims New Ofcom HFSS Rules Are Flawed), whilst numerous debates regarding advertising restrictions kept the issue in the headlines.
Dwindling viewer trust in television also reared its head in ’07, with premium rate phone-in scandals affecting all of the major terrestrial broadcasters.
By March, ITV had suspended all premium rate phone-ins and interactive services, and had taken digital quiz channel ITV Play off air. This came after the commercial broadcaster admitted to overcharging red-button users by a combined total of £200,000 on eviction votes for The X Factor.
This followed hot on the heels of phone-in problems with BBC One show Saturday Kitchen and Richard & Judy‘s ‘You Say, We Pay’ quiz on Channel 4 (see ITV Suspends Premium Rate Phone-Ins).
Five then suspended programming involving premium rate phone-ins, after Endemol UK told the channel about issues surrounding its quiz show Brainteaser, whilst Blue Peter faked competition winners.
Towards the end of the month, Ofcom officially announced an inquiry into the use of premium-rate telecoms services in television programmes (see Ofcom Announces Phone-In Investigation), and by July, premium-rate phone regulator, Icstis, had imposed its highest ever fine of £150,000 on Eckoh, the service provider on ‘You Say, We Pay’ (see Record Fine For Richard & Judy Phone Quiz Operator).
By December, Ofcom fined Channel 4 a total of £1.5 million for misconduct in viewer competitions in Richard & Judy and Deal or No Deal (see Ofcom Fines Channel 4 £1.5m Over Phone In Quizzes).
In July, Ofcom fined the BBC £50,000 for breaches of its broadcasting code after a studio guest posed as the winner of a phone-in competition on Blue Peter. It was the first time that Ofcom had imposed a financial penalty against the BBC (see £50,000 Fine For BBC).
In the same month, the regulator found “systemic failures” in PRS on TV, with the outcome of the watchdog’s inquiry into the sector saying some broadcasters “appeared to be in denial about their responsibilities to ensure programmes delivered on the transactions they offered to viewers” and that there was a “lack of transparency through the supply chain” (see Ofcom Finds ‘Systemic Failures’ In Premium Rate Phone-In Services).
2007 was a landmark year for digital television, with the digital switchover starting in October (see Digital Switchover Begins Today), and household take-up of digital television rising steadily.
Ofcom said that household take-up, via Freeview, digital satellite or cable TV, had risen to almost 85% to the end of June 2007 (see Digital TV Penetration Reaches Almost 85%).
In November, Ford Ennals, the chief executive of Digital UK, the body overseeing the digital switchover, stepped down – just weeks after the process began (see Digital UK Chief Quits As Switchover Gets Underway), whilst in December, Ofcom’s Consumer Panel raised “urgent, practical issues” about how digital switchover was being publicised (see More Publicity Needed Around Switchover To Help Consumers).
During the year, Freeview reported to be the most popular way to watch multichannel television in the UK, overtaking Sky. By November, the company reported that it was in 14 million UK homes (see Freeview In 14 Million UK Homes).