Text Quizzes - Far to easy

Lapin

Newstalk seem to have one on every programme now.
As I write this, the Lunchtime Show currently have two running.

No problem with that. I love quizzes.

But could they at least make the questions somewhat challenging instead of insulting the listeners intelligence and taking any element of having to think about the answer out of the question.

Example - one of the questions on Newstalk now is "What river flows through Cork City, the Shannon or the Lee" ?

I mean FFS. Give the listener some modicum of wisdom. Newstalk isn't the only culprit of course. I'm looking at you and your money Mr Mooney?

In fact all Radio (and TV) stations have given in to this dumbing down. Obviously they make an income on the texts, so the logic is, the easier the question, the more entries they receive. But such stupid questions actually put me off entering. It may as well be a raffle.

It doesn't have to be Mastermind - Just give us a bit of a challenge.

PS The heading should read 'Far too easy' of course, but I can't change that now.

Teyla Emmagan

Do they have to do it for some reason? Are they not allowed to just give stuff away maybe? (?!) Because I have often thought the same thing myself, the text 'quizzes' on Newstalk in particular are so pathetic they are not worthy of the name. If you couldn't get the answer right on virtually all of them you would need to be a single celled amoeba. I wish they'd just give it up, it's headwrecking just listening to the stupid questions being called out.

Lapin

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

Do they have to do it for some reason? Are they not allowed to just give stuff away maybe?

I think they have to ask a question to give it legitimacy as a quiz.
I'd prefer if they simply called it a raffle and offered the prize to a texter chosen at random.

Genghis

I think there is a legal distinction between a raffle / lottery (for which you need a licence) and a test of 'skill' (for which you do not). They have reduced the level of 'skill' required (i.e. answer a dumbass question) to its very lowest level so that the 'competition' becomes a de facto raffle.

The second important point is that the station usually or even always has the prize sponsored, in return for which they get the money from the premium texts. By making the question as easy as possible, they encourage more entries/

bamboozle

in newstalks case they seem to ask the easiest question possible to encourange as many texts as possible, i'd love to know newstalks revenue from texts sent into the station. Like the station but hate how they whore themselves non stop on each show begging the listener to text in

telekon

I sometimes wonder if they made the quiz really difficult, would it actually get more people to text in as they would think that no one else could be arsed looking up the answer on the internet...

I know on the rare occasion there's a difficult question, I text in as I think I'm one of the few people that know the answer, thereby increasing my chances of winning considerably.

splendid101

They want the questions as easy as possible so people will just text in without even having to think. If you have to think, I'll look that up later to be sure, you're less likely to text in.

Just get the texts in as quickly as possible.

Sometimes they set questions which are a little too difficult so the hosts give away the answer or drop a little hint.

Strictly business!

Firetrap

I think it's down to encouraging as many people as possible to text in the answer without having to bother go look it up. I don't bother entering competitions but I know that if I was busy making the dinner or something, I'd not be firing up the laptop to go look it up for a radio competition.

Is Newstalk the only radio station that has premium texts? Listening to it is like being on a Ryanair flight. You keep being bombarded with advertisements; in this case, invitations to text in responses to even the most inane of things.

kippy

There are very few "difficult" questions nowadays with the widespread accessibility of the internet.

PaulieBoy

kippy wrote: »

There are very few "difficult" questions nowadays with the widespread accessibility of the internet.

Really? What is the meaning of life? And I will not accept 42 and an answer :-)

heybaby

Firetrap wrote: »

I think it's down to encouraging as many people as possible to text in the answer without having to bother go look it up. I don't bother entering competitions but I know that if I was busy making the dinner or something, I'd not be firing up the laptop to go look it up for a radio competition.

Got it in one, Its a revenue making exercise. They ask a very easy question that u will certainly know the answer to, and thus hopefully youre compelled to text, bam, 30 cent out of your pocket before you know it. It also helps to build listener interaction both at a consious and unconscious level and further builds a relationship between the listener and the station. Not sure what text service newstalk use whether its sremium, oxigen or whatever but a good portion of each text would go to the station. Theres a lot of money to be made from texting , look at liveline on radio 1, whenever they do text pools youre talking the guts of 15,000 texts , even at standard rates thats alot of revenue over time. RTE would easily make several hundred thousand euro a year from text revenue alone.

BrianD

There is a requirement that these competitions are "games of skill". Hence, the question.

By and large radio stations will want to make entry as easy as possible. There are a few purposes of on air contests - engage the listener and increase the time spent listening, they may be a paid promotion by an advertiser and I don't doubt that there is a motivation to earn revenue from inbound text messages.

I guess that every station would like to run straight forward draws, hence the easy questions. Low barrier to entry. Some listeners prefer harder questions - especially if it's for concert tickets where the feeling is that a real fan should win.

Another thing to note, is that in paid promotions some advertisers will demand to know the number of entries received to gauge the success of the promo. Make it easy, get more entries and impress the advertiser!

As for the revenue. The operator takes a big share of that especially at the lower rates. Newstalk charge 30c - operator takes a share, there's also the aggregator and don't forget that 21% of that 30c is VAT. RTE radio are standard rate so unlikely that they any of that unless they've driven a good deal.

Lapin

BrianD wrote: »

Theres a lot of money to be made from texting , look at liveline on radio 1, whenever they do text pools youre talking the guts of 15,000 texts , even at standard rates thats alot of revenue over time. RTE would easily make several hundred thousand euro a year from text revenue alone.

Responding to a poll on Liveline will cost you the same as sending a text to Mr Yeti in the Himalayas. Its not a premium number. Standard network charges apply.

Texting Mooney however, to answer the question about the whereabouts of the Eiffel Tower (Poland, Portumna or Paris), will set one back a Euro if one is stupid enough to partake.

RoundyMooney

That's it. A thousand texts, which isn't a lot given that he surely has 150,000 listening in at least (haven't checked) and the demographic surely means they get a couple of thousand at least-the LLS does the same, and the prizes are sponsored at that.

Do RTE release the figures for text comps? They're slow enough to do so for everything else, so I wouldn't hold my breath, but it would be interesting to find out.

Mooney's Money, me arse

BrianD

Lapin wrote: »

Responding to a poll on Liveline will cost you the same as sending a text to Mr Yeti in the Himalayas. Its not a premium number. Standard network charges apply.

Texting Mooney however, to answer the question about the whereabouts of the Eiffel Tower (Poland, Portumna or Paris), will set one back a Euro if one is stupid enough to partake.

Yes, but I thought we were talking about the run of the mill text lines that radio stations use - 53106 (Newstalk) etc. and not other ones. So far as I know, Newstalk use their 53106 number for everything - comments, comps etc.

tinyjiney

Wot gets me is this "10th caller" crap...(Nova)..........are they telling me that they only accept ten texts per competition.....IDFTS....:rolleyes:

Bard

tinyjiney wrote: »

Wot gets me is this "10th caller" crap...(Nova)..........are they telling me that they only accept ten texts per competition.....IDFTS....:rolleyes:

Um, presumably if they say 10th [size=+2]CALLER[/size], it's not a TEXT competition...

blue4ever

When the lotteries act was ‘tested’ in the courts in the 80’s a few rules were laid out. IN&M were about to run a promotion but its was stopped on the basis that it contravened the lotteries act. Basically there must be an element of ‘skill’, but because of abuse and ambiguity as to ‘skill’ that was further defined that it can’t be ‘colourable skill’ ie what’s 1+1.
The way competitions and promotions are run now completely fly against the act – but are rarely challenged.

tinyjiney

Bard wrote: »

Um, presumably if they say 10th [SIZE=+2]CALLER[/SIZE], it's not a TEXT competition...

DUHHH.....Caller..texter..does it really matter..???.:rolleyes: