[Red Moon]

Phone-in scandals hit Eckoh revenues

TV phone-in scandals have sent revenues tumbling 66pc at Eckoh, the premium-rate phone service provider whose customers include ITV and Channel 4.

A massive fall in telephone voting and competition entries for shows such as ITV's Dancing on Ice, Hell's Kitchen and I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! as well as Channel 4's Richard & Judy, saw revenues fall to £13m in the six months to September, compared with nearly £39m for the same period last year.

Gross profit at the interactive voice recognition division, which historically accounted for almost 90pc of income, fell to £800,000 from £1.8m, the company said yesterday.

Eckoh had not lost any clients in this division over the period, so the fall was due purely to a lower number of calls coming into the same services.

Chief executive Nik Philpot said: "The conditions in the media sector have been challenging and we expect this to be a smaller business going forward."

He said the company would only continue to operate phone-ins for clients who considered regulatory compliance to be of "paramount importance" and were willing to pay for a high quality service.

Source: Telegraph