Broadcast Industry Could Struggle After Phone-In Scandals
Almost £140 million was spent by consumers on TV competitions and voting in 2007, but the broadcasting industry could struggle to build on this source of revenue following the phone-in voting rows, according to research.
TV voting and competitions were worth 13% of the £1.1 billion market in premium-rate phone services last year, behind directory enquiries – £207 million at 19% – and adult services – £153 million at 14%.
The research, compiled by consultants at Fathom Partners for premium-rate phone regulator PhonepayPlus, formerly Icstis, showed that participation TV was particularly popular among 25 to 34-year-olds, with two-thirds having taken part in TV voting, competitions and quizzes last year.
Of people who had used premium-rate services, 31% had participated in a TV programme, equivalent to 11.75% of the total surveyed. Only one percentage point less said they would like to use or try participation TV services in the future.
The figures were based on the six months between June and November last year and, as the first of their kind, do not show the full effects of the crisis in audience trust that is widely perceived to have damaged the TV industry in 2007 (see That Was The Year That Was – 2007 In Review).
However, the report highlighted fears in the industry that broadcasters and premium-rate phone service providers will struggle to generate similar revenues in the future.
The report said that responses to some programmes were “reduced to a fraction of previous levels”, while some kinds of participation were faring worse than others.
Many in the industry thought quiz TV, which has largely disappeared after ITV pulled its ITV Play channel and late-night strand on ITV1, was “effectively ‘dead’ as a format”.
But there were opportunities for gambling and lottery-themed TV under the Gambling Act, while revenues from services tied to the editorial content of programmes were seen as more reliable.
“Going forward, it is expected that phone-paid services will be more deeply integrated with editorial content and formats expected to reinvigorate the industry,” the report said.
It noted that broadcasters remained reliant on new revenue streams because of the decline in traditional TV advertising.
Innovation in formats was likely, the report suggested, to “fix” a market believed to be “broken”.
“The general consensus in the industry is that the market will recover, but perhaps not to the levels previously seen, and that the industry is becoming more mature as a result,” it concluded.
Earlier this week, Ofcom announced new measures to strengthen viewer protection in participation TV, introducing new mandatory licence conditions for television broadcasters.
This came after a host of phone-in scandals rocked the industry, with the watchdog handing out massive fines to several broadcasters (see Ofcom Announces New Licence Conditions For TV Phone-Ins).
In July, Ofcom published a report into premium rate phone services on TV, which found that there were “systemic failures” with its provision and that broadcasters “appeared to be in denial about their responsibilities to ensure programmes delivered on the transactions they offered to viewers” (see Ofcom Finds ‘Systemic Failures’ In Premium Rate Phone-In Services).
PhonepayPlus: www.phonepayplus.org.uk