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Panorama: TV's dirty secrets
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Viewers of one of Britain's best-loved breakfast TV shows have been fleeced out of millions of pounds, Â鶹ԼÅÄ One's Panorama programme will reveal tonight (Monday 23 April).
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Millions of callers to GMTV were encouraged, over a four-year period, to enter premium-rate phone competitions when they could not win, in what could be TV's dirtiest secret.
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The fraud – which happened at the programme's phone-operator Opera Interactive Technology – could have amounted to an estimated £45,000 a day. Or £10million a year.
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GMTV insists it was not aware of the scandal – but last night angry viewers warned that their trust in the programme had been destroyed.
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Norma Senior of Hackney, who spent more than £500 phoning GMTV competitions, said: "I'm very angry, I'm very upset, I feel cheated. I've entered GMTV competitions in good faith, because I trust the brand of GMTV.
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"I feel robbed. It's as if I've just opened a window and thrown my money out. Well, my trust in the programme has gone out of the window too."
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The scandal is one of a series of revelations to be broadcast on tonight's Panorama which includes new information on controversies surrounding The Richard And Judy Show and Blue Peter.
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Each morning tens of thousands of callers have been paying £1.80 a time in a bid to enter the GMTV quiz, unaware that up to half of them were throwing their money away.
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Between 2003 and 2007, Opera Interactive Technology finalised shortlists of potential winners long before the competition phone lines had closed. Ìý
Once the shortlists had been picked, subsequent callers no longer had a chance of winning and were effectively feeding money directly into GMTV and Opera coffers.
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When Opera sales director, Mark Nuttall, learnt what was going on way back in 2003, he sent an email to his team ordering them to keep it from GMTV, saying: "Make sure they never find out you are picking the winners early!"
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The e-mail was also copied to his boss Gary Corbett.
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The news will leave thousands of GMTV viewers furious at the realisation they are out of pocket – some to the tune of hundreds of pounds.
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Samantha Pedder, 37, from Saffron Walden, said: "I've spent near on a thousand pounds, but you think, 'well I'm in with a chance'. To find out that I wasn't makes me really angry and I want my money back.
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"How dare they do that to us? We're watching the programme, we're phoning in we're giving them our money, how dare they? It makes us look like idiots, doesn't it, while they're raking in the cash."
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Grandmother Christine Kielczki from Reading said: "I would usually play two to three times in a week, maybe more. I feel let down and disappointed to think that you're playing these games ... with no hope of actually winning. In future I will not be playing, especially GMTV, anymore."
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Panorama understands broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has now launched a formal investigation following a complaint against GMTV and Opera. (Please note: Ofcom has not confirmed this is related to the same issue).
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GMTV issued a statement saying: "The Panorama investigation has uncovered certain irregularities in the way Opera has been managing GMTV interactive services in the past. GMTV was not aware of these irregularities."
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Opera flatly denied any allegations of wrongdoing but later added they would conduct their own investigation.
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Panorama has also discovered that the scandal surrounding Richard and Judy's You Say We Pay has been going on far longer than it was originally thought when the news broke in February.
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Britain's top TV couple apologised after it emerged a shortlist of winners was being picked long before the competition phone lines had closed.
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As a result thousands of people every day were wasting money on premium-rate phone lines.
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Channel 4 originally admitted that the scandal had occurred since the summer of 2006 – but Panorama has uncovered evidence that it had been continuing for at least two years before that.
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Pensioner Joanne Goddard, from Canterbury, Kent, said: "I must have played every evening for six months and I've spent in excess of £100 on these phone calls because they are premium rate.
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"I feel disappointed and cheated. I will not be watching Richard and Judy again and I shall not enter the competitions again – I have learnt my lesson."
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Meanwhile, Britain's longest-running children's show, Blue Peter, has recently found itself in hot water for using a bogus caller when its telephone handling system went down.
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It too was forced to apologise for the incident on 27 November last year, blaming a junior member of staff for "a serious error or judgement."
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But Panorama has learned that within minutes of the programme ending, the programme's editor Richard Marson knew about the fake caller.
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At the time he was furious, but at a production meeting three days later he commended the researcher responsible for their initiative, and did not report it afterwards.
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Some 13,000 children had called in to the competition that day. To make matters worse the programme was re-broadcast two hours later on CÂ鶹ԼÅÄ â€“ but the phone-in number was still on the screen and more than 3,500 children spent 10p each phoning in again.
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One of the children visiting the studios on the day, Peter Eades, aged 13, of Walthmanstow said: "Most of the children I was with said 'How did she get picked? How could that be fair?' I thought, you know, this should not be right."
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His mum Sally Eades said: "I just found it extremely sad. The mistake they made was not trusting the children enough to let them know something had gone wrong.
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"If they'd put their hands up there and then and rearranged the picking of the prize for the next programme it would have been over and done with there and then."
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Director-General of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ, Mark Thompson, admitted that serious mistakes had been made.
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"We've been very clear that what happened on Blue Peter was not acceptable. It was a serious error of judgement.
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"We have to look at the context in which this happened and have to look at the issue of communication and editorial management across the programme and between the programme and senior management."
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Panorama, Monday 23 April 2007, 8.30pm, Â鶹ԼÅÄ One
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#Update as of 23 April 2007:
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In a statement issued by Opera Interactive Technology, the company said: "Opera Interactive Technology has today removed relevant staff from normal duties with regard to GMTV competitions pending further investigation."
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GMTV annnounced that they had terminated their contract with Opera.
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