We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
TV3 HAS MOVED to distance itself from its new Psychic Readings Live broadcast, which has been raising a few eyebrows since it first appeared last week.
The show invites people to call in to take part in a psychic reading with Wayne Isaacs among other presenters. Isaacs describes himself as a ‘global and psychic medium who has helped hundreds of people around the world from many walks of life’.
Calls are charged at €2.44 a minute and callers are advised that while they may not get through to the studio they “can select immediate connection to other psychics at same call cost”.
Now an investigation carried out by Alan Rice and posted on his website has revealed that many of the images used to promote other psychics on screen appear to come from stock photo collections. These images can be paid for and used for a variety of purposes.
Psychic Wayne himself told TheJournal.ie that he wasn’t in the position to comment on the production of the show and that he wasn’t aware of the use of stock images. He said that he had agreed to take part “in good faith” and that any questions would have to be directed to TV3 or to the Eso.Tv production company.
TV3 has issued a statement to clarify that the Psychic Readings Live broadcast is an “infomercial window”.
It goes on to say:
The infomercial is produced by an independent 3rd party (ESO.TV) and promotes a service which is licensed by Comreg. The infomercial also meets all premium phone-line and broadcasting regulations. The content is commercial and not a TV3 programme or TV3 content.
A spokesperson for the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland told TheJournal.ie that it has not received any complaints about Psychic Readings Live, but that complaints of this nature are usually directed to the broadcaster and then forwarded onto the BAI within 30 days.
ESO.TV’s terms and conditions state:
The psychic services are for entertainment purposes only. The responsibility of the Broadcaster is to broadcast the Show and the responsibility of the Producer is to produce the show and its services, including enabling the telephone connection between the Callers and the psychics. Neither the Producer nor the Broadcaster…are and shall be responsible in any manner whatsoever to any act and/or omission of any psychic, including any words, sayings, suggestions, offers etc of the psychics.
Isaacs also made a brief comment about Keith Barry to TheJournal.ie. Last week the illusionist stated his disapproval of Psychic Readings Live and then tweeted:
Barry offered Isaacs €50,000 of his own money if he could prove the ‘psychic’ part of ‘Psychic Wayne’. Isaacs said today that Barry had managed to generate some good publicity out of it and was even becoming a big name in the UK.
Great to see it.. Quicker the united states of Europe fall apart the better …
Exactly!
Beware of Greeks not bearing gifts…
Beware of the Euro !
They are acting like the Greeks are going around spending the money on lavish parties. The fact is the Greeks cant implement more austerity as it will lead to more social unrest and less productivity which is the last thing Greece needs right now not to mention capital been drawn out of the country to service the debt. Restructuring the debt is now the only option for Greece, because more and more countries will start acting like Finland.
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say