Ever heard of the GMTV phone-in scandal?
ITV competitions are all the rage these days, and the truth is that ITV competitions have been popular for a while before the current popularity explosion of online competitions too. Just take a look at some of the best current ITV competitions here to see the full extent [a pick of the best ITV competitions].
Some of you lot may be too young to remember them, but back in the mid 2000s phone-in competitions were extremely popular, and they resulted in quite a few competition winners too.
The famous UK broadcaster ITV were one of the channels to make the most use out of phone-in competitions, with a variety of prizes on offer that could often involve a whole load of cash. It’s not all rosy, however, because back in 2007 a GMTV phone-in scandal erupted that threatened to cripple the broadcaster. Keep reading to find out more!
GMTV competitions
For those of you that don’t know, GMTV was a popular ITV breakfast programme that ran from 1993 until 2010, however recently it has been rebooted as Good Morning Britain, a programme that is incredibly similar. GMTV was bit like a fusion of morning news and a chat show, with a variety of guests such as Mr Motivator coming on each morning.
They also did a range of competitions, which is arguably where the ITV online competitions site got its inspiration from. Unfortunately, however, it wasn’t all fun and games with GMTV competitions…
What was the GMTV phone-in scandal?
GMTV was hit by an incredibly hefty fine of £2 million from the independent media regulator Ofcom in 2007, and the reason why? It was the GMTV phone-in scandal of course! Basically, due to a BBC Panorama expose, it turned out that winners were being picked for GMTV competitions before the phone lines had even closed.
This was allegedly happening from August 2003 all the way through to April 2007, and there were approximately 62 million competitions entries at this time, with GMTV making a profit of almost £50 million. The trouble was that almost half of the total number of participants weren’t actually counted in the competitions, and were therefore owed their money back.
Fall out from the GMTV phone-in scandal
Not only did the GMTV phone-in scandal mean that GMTV (owned by ITV and Disney) needed to pay a heavy fine, but they also had to send out a huge amount of refunds, as well as donate money to charity. The GMTV phone-in scandal may have also contributed to the rise in online competitions, as people saw that phone line competitions were easily tampered with.
At Winzum we like to look at the GMTV phone-in scandal as a way to keep us inspired to make sure our online competitions are run with complete and utter transparency. Because if not, what’s the point?