The X-Factor Suffers 50% Fall In Phone Votes

ITV has reportedly suffered a 50% fall in phone votes for its hit programme The X Factor following the premium-rate phone-in scandal.

A report in the Daily Record claimed that voting levels had fallen by half since last year, with a resulting loss in revenue of around £10 million.

A Deloitte report published last month found that some SMS text votes were not counted for the 2005 The X Factor final, although it added that the problems had not affected the outcomes of the votes.

It is believed that the fall in votes this year is partly due to ITV’s decision to stop accepting text message votes.

Last week, Ofcom and the BBC Trust hosted a seminar to look at issues of trust in broadcasting following the premium rate phone scandals.

The seminar saw the industry agree to a series of objectives, including raising a cross-industry best practice group and addressing the relationship between all parts of the premium rate supply chain (see Ofcom And BBC Meet To Sort Out TV Trust Issues).

The seminar’s participants will meet again next summer to review its progress.

Trust was also an issue at last week’s MediaTel Group Question Time event, with the panelists unanimous that the incidents that have dominated the debate have been unacceptable.

Panelists Mark Cranmer, CEO Of Research International, and Mark Howe, country director, UK Sales at Google, said that integrity for the customer had been missing and was essential for viewers to start trusting TV again.

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com