icstis forums
15th icstis Forum - 28th June 2007The 15th icstis Forum was held in central Manchester at the contemporary museum Urbis. Attended by nearly 90 stakeholders from all areas of the premium rate industry, this was icstis' third Forum held outside London. The event was chaired by icstis Chairman, Sir Alistair Graham, and he opened the session by welcoming all attendees and giving them an overview of the day ahead.
Sir Alistair spoke of the high levels of activity and media attention that icstis had faced over the last three months because of its involvement in the participation TV sector. He also updated the Forum on icstis' imminent rebrand as PhonepayPlus - the formal launch will take place in October 2007 - and conveyed icstis' expectations that the new name will pave the way for more consumer-focused, pre-emptive regulation.
Paul Whiteing, icstis Director of Policy & Innovation, commenced the presentations with his update on topical issues. In terms of Broadcast PRS, Paul gave a brief historical timeline, outlining the start of the concerns in late February and concluding by setting out the next steps. Paul placed emphasis on the prospective findings of the Ofcom Inquiry by Richard Ayre (due in mid-July) as these conclusions will directly affect icstis' future work in this sector.
Paul then updated the Forum on 0871 on the basis that icstis will receive regulatory responsibility for this number range in early 2008. He reminded those present that the closing date for the consultation on 0871 services was today (28 June) and that icstis had received over 500 public responses. Paul stressed that the level of input was positive and would shape the proposed regulation strategy and activity.
Next, Paul reflected on the Ofcom Scope Review in terms of ongoing challenges and responses that need to be addressed. He then briefly touched on Mobile Services and icstis' desire to work with the industry on issues surrounding data charging to ensure more clarity in pricing for consumers. Finally, Paul spoke about Governance Changes and the creation of a Code Compliance Panel, as well as the Stakeholder Engagement consultation, which closes on 3 July 2007.
Click here to view Paul Whiteing's presentation
Jane Dupé, Competition Policy Advisor at Ofcom, spoke next on the subject of Consumer Protection Tests for Telephone Numbering. Jane updated the Forum with some of the background information regarding these tests and why they are necessary in terms of restoring consumer confidence in particular number ranges. She then went on to present the basic form of the proposed test, Ofcom's proposed assessment criteria/process and the next steps for this project.
Click here to view Jane Dupé's presentation
Following up from Paul Whiteing's earlier briefing on the Ofcom Scope Review, Bradley Brady, Consumer Policy Manager at Ofcom, gave a more in-depth update of the assessment. He explained the initial terms of reference of the Review, before moving onto the process behind the evidence gathering. Bradley then touched on the issues that are emerging and explained the tools available to Ofcom to amend the regulation of PRS. He concluded with the revised timetable of the Review, which has been delayed, largely due to developments in Broadcast PRS.
Click here to view Bradley Brady's presentation
After a brief break, the Forum resumed with a panel session focusing on Participation TV. Chaired by Parool Patel, icstis Interim Head of Communications, the panel was made up by Ann Cook, Partnership Director & Controller of Interactive at ITV, Jeremy Hallsworth, CEO at BT agilemedia, Duncan Cunningham, Director at Telecom Express, and Barry Houlihan, Managing Director at Mobile Interactive Group.
The panel was chosen to represent varying points of view from across the Broadcast PRS value chain, and the discussion revolved around analysing the phone-in competition crisis three months on to determine where the main problems lie. The panellists were asked to share their individual experiences of pro-actively responding to the issues, as well as of current and future regulation for the sector.
The general consensus of the panel was that the issues arose from lack of clarity and communication across the value chain. Duncan Cunningham felt that too much responsibility was put on the service provider for too little gain, whereas Ann Cook felt that ITV did not understand the risks involved before the problems came to light and, although ITV's very public audit of all of their PRS services has been a ‘very interesting experience - there's nothing like having your business turned upside down,' she said that the broadcaster is now much more well informed in terms of ownership and accountability, the importance of communication across the value chain and respect for personal actions.
Barry Houlihan said he would like to see reclassification of the value chain as a direct result of these issues. He also spoke about how the Mobile Interactive Group is working with the industry to create a set of best practice guidelines which will look to address all risk areas in order to pre-empt problems. Jeremy Hallsworth said that communications across the value chain are vast improved and all areas are involved in a ‘systematic way' to stop this happening again.
Sir Alistair Graham closed the Forum by thanking the delegates (especially external speakers and panellists) for their input. He again emphasised the highly eventful first half of the year, before adding that the second half would be just as, if not more, action-packed. He reminded the Forum that the next time they meet (29 November at the Foreign Press Association in London), icstis would be PhonepayPlus.