New Delhi: Arguably the most successful game show in Indian television Kaun Banega Crorepati was on Thursday adjudged unfair in certain aspects by the National Consumer Commission which imposed a fine of Rs 1 crore on broadcaster Star TV and the sponsor Airtel.
"Star Plus TV and Bharti Airtel Limited are held to have violated the provisions of Consumer Protection Act in conducting the 'Har Seat Hot Seat' (HSHS) contest which was in conjunction with the main television show Kaun Banega Crorepati and thereby adopted unfair trade practice," the Commission presided by Justice M B Shah said.
The Commission, also comprising members Rajyalakshmi Rao and Anupam Dasgupta, held that in 52 episodes of KBC-3 the telecom company and the channel made a profit of Rs 8.12 crore out of the SMSes sent by viewers to participate in the contest.
"Considering the large amount of profit earned and large number of consumers affected, this would be a fit case for imposing punitive damage of Rs 1 crore," it said.
Popular TV game show KBC, hosted by Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan between January 22 to April 19, 2007, was sponsored by Airtel.
The Commission's direction came after an NGO, The Society of Catalysts, filed a complaint alleging unfair trade practices by Star Plus and Airtel.
In the 'Har Seat Hot Seat' contest at the end of each episode of KBC, a question was flashed and viewers were asked to send the answers through SMSes or through phone calls on Airtel or BSNL or MTNL.
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An award of Rs 2 lakh was given to one person who gave correct answer through a lucky draw.
The telecom service provider charged Rs 2.40 per message, higher than normal charge of Re 1.
The Commission after going through records found that they received 58 million text messages and thereby collected Rs 13.92 crore from participants of HSHS contest.
Out of that amount, prices worth of Rs 1.04 crore was distributed, leading to a gross profit of Rs 12.88 crore.
They received a large amount of Rs 13.92 crore from SMS messages.
Further, the excess revenue came to Rs 8.12 crore as they received Rs 13.92 crore from 58 million messages at the rate of Rs 2.40, which at the normal rate would have yielded only Rs 5.92 crore, the Commission noted.
Out of Rs 8.12 crore, they distributed prices amounting to Rs 1.04 crore. Still, the surplus revenue comes Rs 7.08 crore, it said.
"If Re 1 is the normal charge per SMS, even then the total amount that would have been collected for 58 million SMSes would be Rs 5.8 crore. So it is quite clear that at Rs 2.40 per SMS, the gross earning was far in excess of the cost
of the prices offered," the Commission said.
The Commission rejected the plea of the companies which contended that they are charging the participants extra because of additional cost of specialist vendors and expensive software.
"Both Airtel and Star Plus TV have been in the business of conducting such contests for long and it is the third avatar of the first KBC. In this set of the circumstances there is no question of value added service," Commission said.
"It is apparent that opposite parties (Star Plus and Airtel) adopted deceptive practice and permitted offering of prices by suppressing the fact that the prizes would be distributed out of collection of amount through SMS," it said.
The Commission also turned down the plea of the companies to implead other telecom companies BSNL and MTNL.
"There is nothing on record to suggest that they too recovered large amount from call/SMS charges for HSHS contest and they used the said amount for sharing the cost of prizes," the Commission said, adding that prizes were
distributed from Rs 13.92 crore received by Bharti Airtel Ltd.
It directed to deposit Rs 1 crore with the Registrar of the Commission. The companies were also directed to pay Rs 50,000 to the complainant towards litigation costs.
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