30 October 2005
SundayMirror
By Ben Harvey
MILLIONS of X Factor fans who use mobiles to vote are being ripped off by phone companies.
Virgin Mobile is the worst offender - charging 85p a call, giving the firm a profit of 50p.
T-Mobile charges 75p a call, Vodaphone 60p a minute and O2 and Orange just 50p a call.
An X Factor source confirmed the system is a huge money-spinner for the ITV show - which itself rakes in 35p a call.
Viewers last year spent £2.8million calling and texting the hit series - developed by pop svengali Simon Cowell and owned by production house Talkbackthames - and have helped ITV to earn £200 million in the past six months alone.
The source said: "It's a major source of revenue for the X Factor and one we are keen to grow - but we cannot tell the mobile networks what they can charge."
A Sunday Mirror investigation also revealed mobile networks are raking in cash from the text messaging service.
As well as charging 35p a text most then charge an additional 12p for a "confirmation message" which is sent to show a vote has been registered.
Last night Vodaphone, O2, Orange and Virgin stood by their call rates. But a T-Mobile spokeswoman said: "In the next few days we will be reducing how much we charge customers to use phone services like those on TV shows like X Factor."
