The BBC reports:

For four years, finalists were chosen before lines closed – meaning those who rang later wasted up to £1.80 a call.

Money for nothing, apparently. That did not go over so well with the regulators, who protect consumer interests.

Ofcom said the breaches “constituted a substantial breakdown in the fundamental relationship of trust between a public service broadcaster and its viewers”.

[…]

The problems began in January 2003 and lasted until March 2007, when they were uncovered by the BBC’s Panorama programme.

During this period, GMTV’s revenues amounted to more than £63 million.

It claimed viewers lost £10m a year, as up to half of all callers never had a chance of winning.

The “never had a chance of winning” is a very strange-sounding phrase. I suppose it is this measure of certainty that made it such an open and shut case. In contrast, things like environmental harm might have greater consequences but industry leaders and government cronies (e.g. the Bush administration) are almost always able to find someone who will try and challenge the notion of certainty.

This process of intentional obfuscation and uncertainty can then lead to trust (i.e. snakeoil) ironically and unfortunately. It seems as though GMTV was unable to obfuscate the fact that they had closed the system and thus took in subsequent money on false pretense.