The BBC has admitted viewers were asked to phone in for a show they had no chance of appearing on.
On 10 February, BBC One's Saturday Kitchen host James Martin said viewers could call in for the next week's show.

But the next instalment was recorded just minutes after the live show - too little time for callers to appear.

A BBC spokesman said it was a simple mistake and all phone profits went to charity. Premium phone line regulator Icstis is looking into the incident.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6397099.stm

moneysavin wrote on Feb 27^th, 2007 at 10:36pm:

A BBC spokesman said it was a simple mistake and all phone profits went to charity.

Utter rubbish.  Most of them go to the UK telecoms network operators and only a minority of the profits actually find their way to charity.  The BBC and their telephony partners in crime Capita and Cable & Wireless are compulsive liars on this issue.

An interesting (?) observation is that all the advertisements for one to vote for a man to host Woman's Hour quote the 090 numbers and say that "calls will cost 25p with at least 12p" going to Red Nose Day. Surely the "no more than 13p" that presumably goes to the operators is overdoing it.
Or am I being naive again?

Tanllan wrote on Mar 2^nd, 2007 at 9:27am:

Surely the "no more than 13p" that presumably goes to the operators is overdoing it.  Or am I being naive again?

I thought exactly the same thing and meant to send in an email.

As its for charity you would think either the whole lot could go the charity or certainly at least 80% of it. :o :'( >:(

Tanllan wrote on Mar 2^nd, 2007 at 9:27am:

An interesting (?) observation is that all the advertisements for one to vote for a man to host Woman's Hour quote the 090 numbers and say that "calls will cost 25p with at least 12p" going to Red Nose Day. Surely the "no more than 13p" that presumably goes to the operators is overdoing it. Or am I being naive again?

The numbers you refer to are here.

They are 09011 16120x numbers which are allocated to BT (and not C&W!)

I mentioned on another thread that BT Wholesale has a "Carrier Price List" giving the rates it charges operators for terminating the call (you can download the Excel spreadsheet here).


Quote:

Number Charge Effective Until Daytime Evening Weekend Range Band Date (p per call) (p per call) (p per call) 090111 ff1 01/02/2006 31/03/2006 19.6386 20.0207 20.0893 090111 ff1 01/04/2006 31/03/2007 19.6493 20.0256 20.0931 090111 ff1 01/04/2007 19.6557 20.0285 20.0954

The call charge when calling from a BT landline is 21p excluding VAT.

I've noticed a similar thing on Radio 1 this week, only this time texts cost £1, with 70p going to Comic Relief. A nice little earner for whoever gets the rest.

Chris Moyles said every time they do this they get complaints, and he has asked about it, and says that's just how it is. Radio 1 doesn't get the money (Capita, anyone?), and if you want to donate a pound, then text in twice!