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The Commerce Commission is investigating complaints that Alt TV viewers have been ripped off in a text message competition.
The commission confirmed yesterday it had "opened a dialogue" with the niche broadcaster after a series of complaints over text message charges.
Alt TV was recently ordered off air after explicit and abusive texts were mistakenly screened.
The station was also fined $5000. The Weekend Herald understands the latest problem stems from competitions where viewers sent text messages and were charged 99c, but were not told they were being charged.
A Vodafone spokesman said premium-rate text services - used for promotions such as television competitions and horoscopes - were provided by third-party companies, which bought capacity on the network from Vodafone.
As soon as Alt TV realised "something weird" was happening, it shut down the competition, the spokesman said.
