October 16, 2017

Local radio station Radio Plymouth ran a competition called “What’s the Word” where listeners were invited to guess the missing word from a clip of a celebrity interview to win a cash prize. Entry to the competition was by telephone, charged at users’ standard local rate. The competition was aired twice every weekday and on each occasion one entrant was taken to air to submit an answer. If neither caller of the day was successful, £10 was added to the prize fund. To assist future entrants, the incorrect guesses were added to a list published on the station’s website. Radio Plymouth notified Ofcom that at some point between 10 and 20 July 2017, the correct answer was erroneously added to the list on the website and that on the morning of 20 July, it was included in a selection of “incorrect” guesses read out to listeners.

On investigation, Ofcom said that entrants might have submitted an answer on the understanding that the correct answer was wrong. It therefore considered that these entrants might have been materially misled if they incurred a charge for calling. However, Ofcom took into account several points including the swift action taken by the station to abort the competition once it had become aware of the incident, the process it put in place to ensure that those who may been affected were offered a refund and the additional measures it had put in place to prevent a recurrence. Ofcom also noted that Radio Plymouth had itself alerted Ofcom to the incident. Taking all the factors into account, Ofcom considered the matter resolved. To read the adjudication on Radio Plymouth, published in Issue 338 of Ofcom’s Broadcast and On Demand Bulletin (9 October 2017), click here.