GMTV terminates Opera. Deary me.

You know a ‘scandal’ is big news when BBC Radio One, the yoooof station, covers it during it’s morning news broadcast complete with audio quotes from the GMTV MD.

Link: Phone-in firm sorry over GMTV scandal | Uk News | News | Telegraph

He [The GMTV MD] said GMTV had trusted Opera, but went on: ‘The fact is it appears two or three people at this telecoms company were taking it upon themselves to do this even without the knowledge of the management.

‘If we had known it would have stopped immediately.”

Half of me thinks that GMTV should have checked up to ensure everything was working smoothly — especially after the recent spate of issues with other suppliers and television shows. The other half of me thinks that this is what they were paying Opera for, to sort it all out and make sure the rules and regulations are correctly implemented.

Have a read of this bit, also from the Telegraph article:

It claimed Mark Nuttall, the sales director of Opera, learned what was going on in 2003, but wrote an email which read: ‘Make sure they never find out you are picking the winners early!”

Opera admitted some staff had been removed from their ‘normal duties”, but would not give further details.

Ooooh dear.

Bad, very bad for the industry’s public reputation. I wonder, though, if this sort of coverage will actually influence people? Will the frequent users of such services continue as normal?