BBC Comments On Phone-in Policy Regarding Participation TV

The BBC has issued a statement after ICSTIS, the premium rate services regulator, announced "measures to restore public trust in participation TV".
In a statement the BBC has welcomed last week's meeting as "useful and constructive"
and said it was "conscious of its responsibilities to ensure that all of its audiences have complete confidence in the integrity of phone lines used in its output."
"The BBC differs from commercial broadcasters in that we do not use premium rate numbers to generate revenue, except for a small number of clearly defined charitable occasions such as Comic Relief and Children in Need.
"For all competitions, the BBC seeks to charge the lowest possible rate with the aim of not making a profit. It is for this reason that the BBC's own editorial guidelines give clear guidance on the use of premium rate lines and ensure that all BBC programmes adopt the ICSTIS codes when using such lines.
"We can confirm that a full review of BBC programmes which use premium rate telephone lines, led by Jana Bennett, Director of BBC Vision, is already well underway and a report will shortly be made to the Director-General.
"We have already agreed to share the report with ICSTIS. We look forward to contributing fully in the consultation process announced by ICSTIS this afternoon."
Last week, ITV announced that it had appointed Deloitte as independent auditors to conduct a complete review of all premium rate interactive services used in ITV programmes.
This will cover ITV productions, co-productions and independent productions.
(SP)