Congratulations to Channel 4 for – as far as I can see – carrying out a serious investigation into allegations of misdeeds and rips offs amongst its various phone-in contests – and deciding to pretty much scrap the lot as a result. And where they’re not being scrapped (how could Big Brother be Big Brother without the voting!) making them only cost-neutral or revenues to charity.

This follows the BBC suspending a whole range of items too. But where does this leave ICSTIS – the regulator who is meant to be keeping things under control and stopping us, the viewer and phone voter, being ripped off?

If ICSTIS was really on top of its job neither the BBC nor Channel 4 would have to be doing this large-scale cull. ICSTIS keeps on dolling out relatively small scale fines – sometimes to the very same firm time and time again. (Just look at the list of rulings against Opera Telecom – the firm at the centre of the GMTV scandal.) That’s clearly not working. When you keep on fining the same firm time and time again, isn’t about time you should do something different?

ICSTIS is far too reluctant to levy seriously heavy fines or to stop people who have been caught breaking the rules from continuing to provide the same services. It’s all been a matter of very, very slow catch up by them. Let’s hope they finally pull up their socks and the are rather more effective in future! Their latest annual report boasts (belatedly, hurrah!) about them starting to take more serious action. But if they are honest they’ll look around at the shambolic wreckage around them and admit they have failed.