Top Down Management and Trust...Or Rather the Lack of It!

Now here are some little gems emerging at the same time that the Chairman of P & G was admitting that a "mind shift" was needed in an attempt to establish relationships with consumers/viewers?

As your reading these little "gems", I ask you to consider the fact that we are talking about trust, because, and as you will know, once trust is lost it is horribly difficult to get it back!

LONDON - ITV has temporarily suspended all its premium interactive services and withdrawn its gaming channel ITV Play in response to the controversy surrounding premium-rate phone numbers, which could put some of its top shows including 'Dancing On Ice' under threat.

The move comes as the premium rate phone regulator Icstis launches an inquiry into voting on ITV1's flagship Saturday night show 'Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'. Allegations have been levelled that premium voting lines had still been open, even though contestants had already been picked for the show.

Additionally revelations last week indicated that viewers tuning in to the 'X-Factor', broadcast on ITV1, had been charged an extra 15p for phone votes during the last series.

It identified that incorrect payments were collected through red button applications on the Sky platform during the last series of the 'X Factor'.

In the programmes broadcast between October 12 and December 16 2006, viewers had the opportunity to participate in the show through the red button in two ways, either by taking part in a prize competition, costing £1 an entry, or by voting in the show, costing 35p an entry.

Consider this please, there are millions of pounds spent on advertising on these channels, at the same time that the channels were in the process of ripping off their viewers!

Advertisers are finding it difficult enough to have their advertising noticed, and then believed without, I suggest, having this sort of information published!

Another fine mess bought to you by those fine people at Top-Down-Management Limited!

The mistake came to light two weeks ago when the broadcaster received the latest red button revenue statement from Sky for the operation of the last series of 'X Factor'. This statement showed a surplus to ITV of £200,000.
The broadcaster has not been the only television network to be embroiled in a premium-rate phone scandal of late.

Channel 4 came under fire early last month when it came to light that viewers trying to participate in its 'You Say, We Pay' quiz spot during its teatime ratings winner 'Richard and Judy', had been convinced to phone premium-rate competition lines even though participants had already been chosen.

The scandal grew with the news that the BBC One show 'Saturday Kitchen' had encouraged viewers to phone premium-rate lines to vote on a competition during a pre-recorded show.

Is it any wonder that people are turning away from terrestrial broadcasting and resorting to the Web, after all the Web has some limited interactive (FREE) capabilities. Thus allowing all those frustrated one-way viewers to vent their rage and frustration at all those wonderful Top-Down-Management boffins who spend their highly paid days dreaming up these scams!

Interestingly some research has come to light recently, which discovered the following:

 An overwhelming majority of consumers (95% in the UK, 94% in the USA) say they trust the opinions of friends and family more than doctors, non-profit organisations, charities, academics, sportsmen/women, non-government organisations, government organisations, journalists, celebrities, bloggers and politicians.

 In fact, politicians were the least trusted of the bunch (9% in the UK and 11% in the USA), even less than bloggers (15% in the UK and 20% in the USA).

So if they don't trust journalists, politicians, among other, do you really think that they trust advertising at all?
So just how many millions of pounds/dollars are being wasted each and every day because of a lack of trust?
I think the figure would astound us all if we knew!
Meanwhile Top-Down Management was having another field day with the long running BSkyB-Virgin Media saga. Virgin says it will sue if Sky refuses arbitration, they will sue Sky for anti-competitive behaviour. Virgin Media objects to the price that Sky wants for its basic channels, including Sky One and Sky News. It said that Sky wanted to nearly double the annual fee to £48.5 million!

Top-Down Management must also be delighted with the result of their fight with Virgin Media it is has emerged that Lost dropped 100,000 viewers on Sky One following their Virgin spat

"Sky One's prized US import 'Lost' jettisoned an estimated 100,000 viewers last night following BSkyB's decision to pull its basic channels from the Virgin Media platform."
According to unofficial overnight figures, 'Lost' pulled in 781,000 viewers and a 4.6% share. "

The drop is another blow to Sky's decision to outbid Channel 4 for the third and fourth series of 'Lost', which is proving to be a costly acquisition for the channel.

When the series made its debut on Sky One in November, it was averaging around 1.4m viewers.

That figure soon dropped to just under one million until last night's low, while the second series averaged almost 3m viewers on Channel 4. Sky is now paying more than £1 per viewer, a ratio it will find hard to justify.

Don't you think that BSkyB management team deserves a special "Top-Down-Management Oscar" for some really spectacular foul-ups?
It makes you wonder what these "Top-Down-Management" teams will do when genuine interactive communications appears…or may be they will be totally unemployable by then!