Ooh my.

Eckoh have certainly got a roasting in today’s Sun newspaper. If you’re into serving clients who deal with consumers, it’s the sort of press you don’t really want. Pulling the sensation apart from the facts (if any), well, that’s rather difficult.

Here’s the article: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2007100754,00.html.

VIEWERS are losing out DAILY as computers handling hit ITV phone-in votes crash, a whistleblower revealed yesterday.

The worker from ITV’s quiz operator Eckoh said shows including I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! Soapstar Superstar and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? were involved.

She told how thousands of viewers’ votes are not all counted because computers regularly go down at peak times — but the callers are still charged

Now, ‘regularly go down at peak times’ could be dramatic license. It’s not unheard of for systems to crash, but if they’re doing it regularly, the IT guy either needs more money, more support or a good kick to fix it.

She said the computer server could go down for up to five minutes at peak times — and thousands of calls could be lost.

During quieter periods — when there were fewer technical staff on hand — it could go down for up to 30 minutes.

The operative word there is ‘could’.

After the shocker, they’ve put in the obligatory quote from the company:

A spokeswoman insisted the system could cope. She said: ‘Eckoh can handle 500,000 calls per hour. It uses 300 computers and there are occasional crashes, as with any system.

‘But issues are identified and addressed immediately. Any isolated computer crash would have no impact on vote registration.”

The moment The Sun gets hold of anything, there’s usually an issue. Particularly because so many people read it — in terms of copies sold and in terms of copies being handed around the office.

To the right of the main article, you’ll see a header, ‘Suspect line-up who are quids in’:

Suspect line-up who are quids in

A STRING of shows are caught up in the phone lines scandal. Here are the main culprits.

Richard and Judy (Channel 4, weeknights at 5pm). Fans were encouraged to ring in for You Say, We Pay at £1 a time AFTER the winner had been picked. Production firm Cactus also tried to rig the National Telly Awards.

X Factor (ITV1, off air, but was Sat 7pm). More than 1.3million viewers ripped off to the tune of £200,000. Every live show of last series was affected. Fans who pressed their remote’s red button were charged 50p instead of 35p.

… and there’s a ton more of those.

This isn’t good for the telecoms industry at all. It’s creating a climate of mistrust. A few more splashes like this and continued headlines for 2-3 weeks and it won’t be long before the public automatically assume that they are ‘being ripped off’. How many of us do the calculations when the TV presenter squeezes with delight at telling everyone ‘we received over ONE POINT FIIIIIIIIIIIVE MILLLLLLLL-YIN VOTES THIS EVENING’…. (“Ok, 1.5m x 0.50? Geez that’s a lot of cash”). We’ve all been doing the calculations already. Some of us, no doubt, have already thought it’s a bit of a swizz — the whole concept.

It is, however, a really fun thing to do. If the programme makers have done their job, they’ll have created an air of excitement and expectation — and an air of ‘It’s up to you, Mr & Mrs Viewer’. You’ll have your favourite soapstar or contestant and you’ll want to see them do well… and, you know, what’s 50p (plus the cost of a standard text), when you’re supporting your favourite? And away you go, text, text, text. It’s exciting. But if there’s any doubt that my text or call won’t be counted? If there’s any hint that I might be getting screwed? Oh dear.

If you’re sat there with your family watching the TV — as a lot of people often are — and the daughter takes out her phone to vote for her boyband — all it needs now, is her ‘informed reader of The Sun’ father to calmly explain to her that she’s blowing her credit on nothing. If she takes that as the informed viewpoint, and you extrapolate this kind of behaviour across the nation, that’s not good. Not good at all.