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Michael Grade was of course talking of the 09 numbers used for things like Children in Need.  He either deliberately pretended to be unaware of or just possibly was unaware of the 087 revenue share.  If he was unaware he needs to be better briefed in future or consider resigning.

The 087 BBC call centre money seems to go either to Capita, who runs and staffs the BBC's call centres for them and/or possibly all to Cable & Wirlless (who terminate calls to these phone numbers) who I have been told by a senior source at Ofcom give the BBC massive discounts on all their outgoing phone call costs (also with Cable & Wireless) as an offset for the incoming revenue share.  So the 087 payments are a direct subsidy to the BBC's phone service operations by the public that the BBC should be paying for out of their own license fees pocket.  But they hope that because no cheque is written to the BBC and/or Capita that they can get away with it.  The BBC is quite shameless on 087 and refuses to acknowledge or act on the COI guidance for government contact centres (which I believe includes them) or the latest ASA Stop the Call Confusion guidance on the cost of calls from BT lines.

There is a feeble lie sometimes told by senior BBC propaganda merchants that the 0870 calls pay for the handful of BBC Freephone 0500 service but as there must be ten 0870 calls for every one free 05 calls this is clearly a blatant untruth.  For some reason a late night phone in on BBC Radio 5 live uses the freephone 0500 number but I can see no reason why these calls are free as the program appears no different from other BBC phone in shows that use an 0870 number.

Some time ago I added the geographic number for the BBC's Northern Ireland headquarters in Belfast from which switchboard it was possible to be connected, without any objection by the staff, to BBC Information in Belfast.

However since my listing of the BBC Information geographic number on this website, following which the number of calls to the BBC Belfast switchboard asking for BBC Information has clearly skyrocketed, staff on the BBC Belfast switchboard have been instructed to tell callers to ring the 0870 number.  Only if one objects and says one has been connected this way before on their geographic number do they grudgingly now agree to connect you to BBC Information.

BBC Watchdog caves in then.  Even they saw the absurdity of a consumer program with a premium number. Even though they didnt explain the significance of their "new number" and the rip-off on their old one.

I am getting the overall impression at the moment the tide is turning in our favour  ?

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Looks like 020 must have worked out cheaper for them than 0500 or perhaps they have also started to get the message about 0500/0800 calls being a ripoff from mobile phones.

Hopefully this will be the Trojan Horse that lets us get 0870 kicked out of the rest of the Beeb 

After all if Watchdog can now get its elaborate call stats and sophisticated call handling on an 020 number then why not the rest of the Beeb.  Its not like they even quoted the 020 as a smaller print alternative to the 0870 number.  They have actually replaced it completely.

Well done WatchDog.  But shame on you for taking at least 15 months too long for getting the message.

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I just sent this to Watchdog's general Contact Us link and form which they assure us will be read by their team (if not answered).

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I was watching while also using the computer and haven't got my Tivo to wind back the credits.  Unfortunately their don't acknowledge any of their presenters or producers/directors/editors on their website, unlike most BBC programs.

One could do worse than to email:

michael.grade@bbc.co.uk
mark.thompson@bbc.co.uk
mike.southgate@bbc.co.uk
stephen.whittle@bbc.co.uk
tim.davie@bbc.co.uk;
jana.bennett@bbc.co.uk
jenny.abramsky@bbc.co.uk

welcoming this change and looking forward to seeing it adopted in all other BBC Contact Centres like BBC Information.  Oh and why not CC:-

richard.lapthorne@cw.com
steve.double@cw.com
tim.stephens@cw.com

and

paul.pindar@capita.co.uk
rodney.aldridge@capita.co.uk
paddy.doyle@capita.co.uk

Here are the email addresses of the three BBC presenters of the program:-

paul.heiney@bbc.co.uk
nicky.campbell@bbc.co.uk
julia.bradbury@bbc.co.uk

Should you wish to congratulate them on making this change and/or ask when they are going to start investigating the rest of the 0870 scammers.

Curious that they made a big deal that their phone number had been changed but not why.  If I had been them I would have made a virtue of this happening and said it was in response to viewer feedback and new guidance on the use of these numbers by Ofcom.

NGM, are those email addresses you mentioned have something to do with Watchdog?

My plan is to email Watchdog and a few of their staff to congratulate them but mostly I wanted to ensure I cc'd some big-wig BBC bosses or other relevant head of depts in a hope that they will feel embarassed by Watchdog and possibly (I know I'm dreaming) switch all if not most to of their 0870's to geographicals like Watchdog have.