http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23387772-details/ITV+suspends+premium...<<
ITV is pulling off air all of its premium rate interactive phone-ins following damaging allegations about viewers being ripped off.
The broadcaster has decided to suspend all these services - which includes phone-in votes and competitions on shows like Dancing on Ice and This Morning - while an independent review is carried out to see if viewers are getting a fair deal when they ring in.
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This weekend ITV was facing accusations that viewers of Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway had been encouraged to call and text the ITV1 show using £1 a time phone lines to enter its "grab the ads" contest - even after the contestants had already been selected.
Only last week ITV admitted that viewers who had voted on The X Factor were overcharged by £200,000. ITV revealed that Sky Digital users who voted using the red button on their remote controls had been overcharged by 15p.
Before that the BBC was accused of misleading viewers after allegations that cookery show Saturday Kitchen had encouraged viewers to call in to the "live" show, even though it was a prerecorded a week earlier.
In one instance, the cookery show asked viewers to vote for which of two meals Eamonn Holmes should eat. But the show was pre-recorded and Holmes was presenting his slot on BBC Radio Five Live at the time.
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~Edited by bbb_uk: Amended title to take into consideration the many other broadcasters' PRS being called into question