TV3 under inquiry over quiz show complaints

Ken Foxe, Public Affairs Correspondent

Play TV: 'adult audience'

AT LEAST 29 complaints have now been lodged with the broadcasting regulator over a controversial quiz show being run by TV3.

The programme, PlayTV, will now be the subject of an inquiry by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC), the Sunday Tribune has learned.

Complaints have included suggestions that some of the puzzles on the show are impossible to solve and that on certain evenings, just a single person out of thousands who called had actually won a prize.

The audience is invited to call in at a cost
of €1.50 and given a chance to answer a question live on air. However, getting through to the studio is very difficult and only a handful of callers are given an opportunity to answer a question.

The 29 complaints received by the BCC have been referred to TV3, which has been asked to give a detailed response to each.

Anne O'Brien of the BCC said: "There are currently 29 complaints registered concerning PlayTV. There are a further four pending."

In one complaint, a viewer said that the show was not a "fair game" and could be seen to "exploit… people who may be desperate for the prize on offer".

The response sent by TV3's director of government regulatory and legal affairs David McMunn rejects the complaint out of hand.

It says: "The service clearly states that there is a charge per call and given the time of the programme the service is clearly aimed at an adult audience.

"It must be stressed that an individual can only incur charges if they ring the service. Further, the limitations on the number of phone calls that have been imposed are some of the strictest in Europe."

TV3 said it regretted that any audience member felt the need to make a complaint and said it was its "intention to provide entertainment to its viewers with this service, not to give rise to concerns on their behalf".

A spokeswoman said: "We are very happy with the way the service is run."

The television show, which offers cash prizes of up to €5,000, was also under investigation by the premium telephone regulator RegTel.

However, it is understood it has found that TV3 had no case to answer and that the quiz show was being operated within all regulations.

Viewers are allowed to call up to 50 times each night before their number is blocked, meaning they can run up a bill of €75 each evening.

TV3 has put in place a system whereby only 300 calls can be made each month from a single number, capping the total amount that can be spent at €450.

However, critics have said that there is no way of monitoring whether the same person is using both a mobile phone and a landline, meaning their monthly bill could double.

August 9, 2009

Comments

#1 Henry Jones commented, on August 10, 2009 at 12:24 a.m.:

I would suggest that Mr. McMunn watch play tv. It is clearly advertising and not entertainment. It has zero entertainment value.

#2 Walter Keane commented, on August 10, 2009 at 1:57 a.m.:

I've never seen such an obvious fraudulent gameshow in my life. Dunno who is worse though - the gameshow itself or the naive morons who ring 40+ times to try and get through!

#3 Jim commented, on August 10, 2009 at 11:01 a.m.:

As if the show being misleading wasn't bad enough (a presenter badgering viewers to ring in a 'open' line for a simple puzzle for a hour when they take zero callers) some of the puzzles are just impossible.

They do 2 things, either have a very simple puzzle worth little money where they take a long time to take a caller as they will probably get it right or they have something like a number puzzle where no one will get it right without clues as the logic is so twisted or there is no logic.

I would love them to investigate how they get answers for some of their puzzles as I am 99.999% some of their answers have been just plain wrong no matter what logic you apply and I don't believe it's accidental.

Take a look at the wikipedia article for the show and you'll see a matchstick puzzle they did which no matter how you look at it their answer doesn't make sense. I emailed their customer support to complain and I got a blatant copy and paste response after a week claiming they can't give away their methods of solution for impartiality reasons. Yeah right. All I want is for them to acknowledge that at least one of their answers I have a example of is just plain wrong.

#4 Martin Quigley commented, on August 10, 2009 at 12:20 p.m.:

I watched the show last night for the first time. It is amazing the amount of minors that are allowed to play. There are no safeguards to stop minors from playing. Would TV3 refund the parents of a minor that ran up a huge phone bill? I would think not.

#5 P Farrell commented, on August 10, 2009 at 12:30 p.m.:

On the 10 august they had a gane to guess the amount of money in t he picture. The total i got was €9.96, there was a €5 note a €2 and some €1 euro coins and the rest was cents. And guess what no one quessed it so they went to spot the differance picture which on till the end of the show. During the spot the differance section The lady showed the answer on the guess the amount of money and when she opened the enevlope the answer was 2.31 now the fact there was a €5 note in the picture it all a scam.

#6 Aidan commented, on August 10, 2009 at 12:59 p.m.:

This is rubbish TV. Its not a fair game. I rang one night In May. I rang 185 times from a mobile phone in the space of 60 minutes at a cost of 1.75Euro. I was charged 393 Euro. My complaint is been dealt with my regtel, bcc, 02 and Phonovation(the company that makes the programme for TV3). To call phonovation to lodge the complaint also cost me over 30 Euro. I know I am silly for making all those calls but there is no safe guard. Ots advertised that you can only make 50 calls. That didnt stop me making 185 calls. I got sucked in. I didn't get through. I got the "Hard luck try again tone - 185 times.". Thats not fair.

This programme should be scrapped. I also don't believe its live.

A

#7 Sean H commented, on August 10, 2009 at 8:45 p.m.:

Pah – I don’t see a problem. It’s well within BCC regulations. People are stupid – that’s why they complained – they didn’t understand the clearly explained rules. The BCC can’t find any regulations broken, because there aren’t any IMO. The sheltered Irish public just aren’t used to these type of shows – there are dozens on UK satellite TV that have been operating for years now.
I'm not a fan of the show, nor have ever called in, but can people not take responsibility for their own actions? The rules are explained at the start of the show, FFS.

#8 John D commented, on August 10, 2009 at 9:09 p.m.:

You twit Aidan. Have you nothing better to do? What a laugh? I know a friend of the presenter guy that does that show and he and the tv crew pre record the show. Of course its not live. He has been spotted in nite clubs when he is meant to be on the telle. Its a total scam. Demand your money back I say to all you who fell for it. Also, There is no right answer. You cant win. No one wins except the companies involved. It is very clever though.... JD

#9 Brian JM commented, on August 10, 2009 at 9:34 p.m.:

I too have phoned more than I should though not like #6 (refund would be gratefully accepted). Last night was typical. Lots of calls guessing how much money and not won. Then on to spot the difference. Two differences, very obvious but no calls taken for an hour then, magically, as the show reaches its end somebody gets through! A regular pattern.
This suggests that there is no open line to be found by chance UNLESS the program makers make one available.
There are also times when they have given an obviously incorrect answer.
They should also be compelled to continuously show how many people are calling.

#10 Duff Beer commented, on August 10, 2009 at 10:59 p.m.:

I have been watching this program for a while, and have got to know the gimmicks the programe uses to get people to call in. Examples include ten moment countdowns, or flashing clocks with two or five minute countdowns to fool callers into thinking the game is about to end when the clocks reach zero. 99 percent of the time no calls are ever put through to the studio and a single game can regularly have multiple countdowns before any call is put through to the studio. Some of the games are very simple, for example, a spot the difference game. The gimmick here is that this game can go on for two hours or more with no calls getting through to the studio. Usually a call will only get through at the end of the show. The harder games do not seem to follow any logic, such as the matchsticks game mentioned on wikipedia, or a count the numbers that are present in the picture game. One of these games had an answer of 229, despite there been a higher number present in the picture. These games always get many calls put through to the studio because the producers know it will be very hard to answer these games correctly. The answers are usually illogical, so they have nothing to lose by letting calls through. I could say more but I am limited to a word count.

#11 Martin Quigley commented, on August 11, 2009 at 12:59 a.m.:

Could Seán H explain how exactly this complies with BCC regulations? Guess we will find out in early September who is right and who is wrong. Are you connected to TV3?

#12 bart commented, on August 11, 2009 at 1:15 a.m.:

Why do play tv not accept any calls for 2 - 2.5 hours? Why is the impression given from these wooden presenters that no calls have been received when it is blatantly obvious that calls have been received?; as both TV3 and play tv are in cahoots with each other on this why can they not be legally forced to show the amount of calls they receive per minute similar to the same format shows from the UK?

Further investigation about the difficulty of the puzzles needs more looking into, ie the fact that some may not be difficult but that the programme gives ambiguous and random answers they come up with, ie a picture game with shrek in it asking you to add all the numbers - the answer was 229 but there was a clear number 232 in the picture, a couple of matchstick games also should have been mentioned, the object of the game was to move 2 matches and make the highest number, 1 such answer was 151321, in order to do the last of the 4 digits became a 2 and what you had was 3892 but the shows superscripted the 2 so that 389 was squared in order to achieve 151321, another matchstick game which are plenty of references on the internet to check is to make the highest number from 3685, an answer of 76851 was given but the show decided the answer was 36251 which is lower than the answer given.

I could go on about the flashing images, more about the phone calls but I would only end up doing Ken Foxe's job for which I should be paid.

#13 Sean H commented, on August 11, 2009 at 1:06 p.m.:

@ Martin Quigley: can you specify which BCC regulations are being broken? Didn't think so. And no, I don't work for TV3 of Play TV. I'm just someone who thinks people should be responsible for their own stupidity. Regtel already found them to be compliant, despite complaints from stupid people. The BCC investigation will be no different.

@ John D: it is live - stop being such a troll.

#14 Martin Quigley commented, on August 11, 2009 at 3:14 p.m.:

The only reason Regtel did nothing is that it is a self regulator i.e. it looks out for its own interests and its members interests. As much use as a chocolate fire-guard. The BCC will find against them.

I think it is a bit disingenuous to call people stupid now. I have never called the show yet I have a complaint in with the BCC. I do not want dishonest programming.

#15 Brian JM commented, on August 11, 2009 at 3:31 p.m.:

#12 Bart made reference to the matchstick puzzles. I sent an email asking for an explanation about how the solution to a certain puzzle was calculated. I got a generic reply:

["Thanks for your mail but please consider that the "audited methodology"
does not mean we are allowed to give away the formula of counting our
puzzles, but means that the puzzle has only one correct answer and the
way of getting to that solution is checked, audited.
Nevertheless, having a formula for counting does not mean that there is
a trickery or anything is hidden in the puzzle.

Unfortunately we can not give away the formula of the puzzle, but I can
assure you that there is an audited and constantly checked methodology
to count the game.

It would be unfair to other participants to give away the formula of the
puzzle.

If the answer was not shown on screen: the game will be used in another
show, stay tuned."]
---

They say the puzzle has only one correct answer. Recently there were
some matchstick puzzles where you had to move 1 match to make the formula correct. At least one of those puzzles had more than one solution. What would happen if a correct solution was submitted but was not the one they had?

#16 Martin Quigley commented, on August 12, 2009 at 12:28 p.m.:

@Brian JM: People have given the alternative correct answers and were told they were incorrect.

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