UK premium services regulator ICSTIS has been fielding a new swath of complaints...in its attempt to keep viewers interested Big Brother UK returned to the house four housemates that had been evicted. As a result a lot of people who had voted to have them removed complained to the regulator saying they had been misled by the show. Currently there are 2,500 complaints, but ICSTIS has not decided whether to investigate the issue…
UPDATE: Well, ICSTIS will be investigating the issue after all. From Reuters: “The majority of the complainants believe that they have been misled,” ICSTIS said. “They were under the impression that they had voted to evict the contestants permanently.” The messages cost 50p a pop, and people contend they may not have spent the money if they had known it wasn’t for as good a cause as they thought.
The watchdog could impose a 250,000 pound fine, bar the companies involved from providing premium rate services, and/or order the companies to refund the money. Of course, it’s not really the premium SMS providers fault that Big Brother decided to bring some people back.
“The watchdog is checking whether the Big Brother vote breaches its rules that services “must not mislead or be likely to mislead by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise”. The inquiry will take up to three months.”