Government threatens TV premium rate ban

Link: Government threatens TV premium rate ban | The Register

The Government will ban television premium rate phone-ins if the industry cannot better regulate itself, broadcasting minister Shaun Woodward has warned.

Woodward said the Government takes the spate of recent mistakes and breaches of regulators’ codes “very seriously”, and that it would ban the use of the numbers for TV quizzes if the industry and regulators could not effect change.

Oh dear me, this is not a good thing for a sector of the industry already battling to restore consumer confidence. Recently we’ve had Vodafone overcharging here and here, the Opera and GMTV scandal, Eckoh having the whistle blown by the Sun, MIG being dragged into Eckohgate, and that’s before we even look into what’s happened over the past couple of years with subscription services being dragged through the media after the whole ‘Crazy Frog’ debacle.