Who wants to be a Millionaire

One of the most popular premium rate services in 1998 was the competition entry line for the ongoing ITV gameshow Who wants to be a Millionaire.

The show offers contestants the opportunity to win cash prizes, ranging from £100 to £1,000,000, which are funded by the programme makers out of the premium rate entry revenue.

Following a successful first series in September, Who wants to be a Millionaire returned for a Christmas Special and a second series in January 1999. Over four million calls were made to the 50 pence per minute line by hopeful contestants from mid-December onwards.

The two-minute service requires callers to select a preferred show date and to answer a multiple-choice question selected from banks of questions. Callers are advised immediately if they are correct and are asked to leave their details to be put forward for a draw to determine who will appear on the show. If they are incorrect, they are told immediately and the call is terminated.

A live helpline is run alongside the premium rate service - this receives less than one percent of the number of calls to the competition entry line.

Financial Information Services

Specialist financial information services are an established part of the UK premium rate industry, with reliable and easy to use information available on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from the latest currency rates and financial indices to portfolio valuations and market news bulletins.

With share ownership on the increase, people are looking for advise on share trading. A number of fiancial tips and analysis lines have been set up to give this advise. The services have the benefit that the line can be updated immediately to reflect current city and market sentiment. The services can be accessed from any telephone, and so allow people to keep in touch and make the right market decision even whilst they are away from their office.

As another example, callers into a share service receive up-to-the-minute information on the shares of their choice by dialling the premium rate number advertised followed by the four digit code for the appropriate share. The share service provides callers with a rapid, direct means of accessing the Stock Market data they need - the movement (up or down) of the share, the current price, the number of shares traded, bid and offer prices, the number of price movements and the day's high and low prices.

Technical Information Lines

Specialist technical magazines such as PC magazines regularly print advisory reference articles. One of the problems readers face is getting their hands on the right reference article when they need it to make a decision or provide assistance.

PC Advisor, a computer magazine, have set up an easy to use premium rate faxback service which provides readers with quick access to a complete library of reference material from previous issuse of the magazine.

The collection of reviews, tests and in-depth feature articles is available round-the-clock: readers simply dial the premium rate number using the handset on their fax machines and enter the code for the article required, which is then sent back to them on the same call.

Television Services

Premium rate services are widely promoted across all media. Television is one such medium and the use of premium rate services in television programme time has become more frequent in recent years.

The use of such services has proved to be an effective tool for programme-makers for a number of reasons. They may be used to collate information for future programmes, encourage audience participation or promote viewer loyalty to the programme.

LWT's Blind Date runs a premium rate service to collect details of potential contestants for future programmes and for its successful touring show. The service benefits both viewers and programme-makers alike. At 25 pence per call, the service enables viewers to register their details quickly and conveniently for less than the cost of a first-class stamp, while providing the programme-makers with a simple, quick and cost-effective method of collating the information they need.

The premium rate service promoted in Granada TV's Stars in Their Eyes enables viewers to vote for their favourite act. The ease and relative cheapness of voting - 10 pence per call - encourages audience participation, engenders programme loyalty and is the most effective way of instantly allowing viewers to choose the winner. Stars in Their Eyes is now in its ninth series and continues to be hugely popular - last year's live final generated almost 1.5 million calls in just over one hour.

Sony Radio Awards 1999

The Sony Radio Awards in the UK are the industry's equivalent of the 'Oscars'. The awards are divided into different categories, ranging from Best DJ and Best Breakfast Show to Best Drivetime and Best News Programmes, and are open to commercial and BBC stations.

Until last year, stations only found out that they had been nominated for an award via a press release on the morning of the official announcements. In January 1998, however it was decided to make the sought-after list of nominations available to all participating stations at the same time and at the earliest opportunity -just after midnight on the relevant day, via a premium rate service.

A service was constructed to play out only at the relevant time with four different 'holding' messages in readiness for those who dialled in too early. The service was designed so that callers could skip throught to the category they were interested in and the presentation style and voice-overs were of a high standard to reflect the professional nature of the event and its sponsor.

Once the awards ceremony was concluded, the line was used to carry a full list of Gold, Silver and Bronze award winners. The line was used again in 1999 with even better results and, as in 1998, proceeds from the service were given to a music charity foundation.

The hotline was judged to be creative and innovative and people asked about the hotline felt it added further theatre to the announcement of the nominations.

Local and Regional Newspapers

Premium rate services are widely promoted across all media. Newspaper and magazines are one such medium and the use of premium rate services in printed medium has become more frequent over the years.

The use of such services has enabled editors to extend the scope and diversity of their publishing, with extended information available via the telephone.

In a number of instances the services have enhanced the editorial content of the newspaper, examples being tele-polls around which a feature can be written, and competitions.

Other successful services include information services such as sports lines and events lines, horoscope lines and telephone dating voicebox services.

Theatre Seating Plan Faxback

Theatre-goers in London's West End no longer have to take pot luck when booking seats at the theatre by phone. They can simply call up the Theatre Seating Plans By Fax service in order to receive a seating plan of the venue in which they are interested.

As well as being promoted in the entertainment sections of many leading national newspapers and magazines, the service can also be accessed via Teletext and the Internet.

The service has taken over 200,000 calls to date and received a commendation at the 1997 Telemarketing Awards.

Sports Club Lines

A number of Cricket and Football clubs have found new ways of keeping in touch with their thousands of fans, by setting up telephone based information services.

Fans can dial in to hear the weather reports and prospects of play, the inside news on whats going on at the club, commentary on selected matches and get a chance to speak out and share their views with other fans.

Marketing the service is done by issuing fans with wallet sized cards with the number of the service and the options.

Competition Giveaways

Competition-style "giveaways" are a regular feature in many leading magazine titles. The style and format vary from having a limited number of items to give away, to services where every caller receives a small item. In the latter instance, the service would be created such that the cost of the call more than covered the item and postage.

As well as genearating revenue for the publisher, the use of a premium rate line reduces the level of administration required compared with handling postal entries. The selection of winners via the telephone is also perceived as being fairer by callers than selecting postal winners.

Publishers have a wide choice in the cost of the calls, ranging from fixed costs of 25 pence or 50 pence to variable calls charged at rates of 25, 50 or 100 pence per minute.

Many publishers choose to use the 25 pence per call single drop charge for this type of service. At this tariff, the publisher can emphasise the cost of calls as being "less than the price of a first class stamp" - this is particularly attractive to magazines with a young audience.

Tree Information Line

The Arboricultural Advice and Information Service assists the owner of trees, whether public bodies or private individuals, to care for their trees more effectively through good practice and give a better quality service to their clients. The line is a good example of the higher tariff of £1.50 per minute which is increasingly being used for high value add services.

As the service is targeted at professional consultants and contractors, operating in either provate practice or as employees of local authorities, the line has to be manned by specialist staff The use of the premium rate number helps the Trust to cover this cost. The introduction of the service has also freed up the time of the specialist staff - the large number of general enquiries, where the advice does not necessarily need to come from experts, are now handled elsewhere.

Fantasy Football League

Fantasy football leagues are now a regular feature in the sports pages of many leading national newspapers. These interactive competitions attract enormous interest, with the original fantasy league, now in its fifth season pulling in more than 250,000 entrants every season. High response rates are also enjoyed by similar competitions in other leading newspapers.

Would-be football managers enter the Daily Telegraph league every August at the start of the football season with the aim of capturing the first prize of a pair of tickets to a football match anywhere in the world as part of a 14-day holiday. For those who are not so confident of their management abilities lasting the full season, smaller weekly and monthly cash prizes are also on offer.

Team selections and team names may be entered by calling a premium rate number, entering details using the telephone keypad, or by post. Once the season is under way, team transfers can be made by once again dialling a premium rate number and using the telephone keypad. Team scoresheets and league positions can also be ordered this way.

Information and Event Lines

With some 4.5 million calls made to services each week and an estimated 20,000 services available at any one time, the premium rate industry is an established part of the UK telecoms scene.

Well crafted, the information lines can be part of the sales and marketing mix and give additional information to callers on the leisure event.

Services range from competitons and horoscope lines to weather and sports information lines and "Whats On" events lines for major venues.