There's nothing 'shady' about it. TV companies do it for their competitions. Do you think they give away those prizes out of the goodness of their hearts? The competition entrants pay for the prizes via the premium rate number they dial to enter.
when GMTV were doing their compo's (iir it were the drawing the winner before the lines were closed that got em in trouble) they used to say "calls cost 10p per min and may last x" or "£1.50" i forget (dont have a tv thank f) and all those £1.50's mounted up to pay for the prize 10+ times over
with stupid questions like
who is the president of microsoft
a> Bill Clinton
b> Darth Vader
c> Bill Gates
they might as well call it the "it must be C competition" and say "answers on the back of a fiver to ..." as they were never hard that even your altzhimers grannie would know or atlesat have a 1 in 3 chance of getting it right (if only she could remember the phone number and where she left the phone)
edit:
when i was last oop norf visiting my brother i was late night channel hopping and on what used to be the music channels TMF and the hits (and nigh on every freeview channel) was the same 'live' call in quiz show with mini wheel of fortune or blank crossword puzzles on screen with p**s easy questions and callers calling in and still not getting it right ... nor were they allowed to just say the answer they had to tell the presenter a bit about themselves (at 10p per minute calls from mobiles may cost more please contact the bill payer before dialing)
i thought it was bad enough when most freeview channels didnt start till 7pm but for them all to turn over the airwaves enmass to that drivvel ???