BBC fined £400,000 over unfair phone-ins

MEDIA FRAUD : BBC fined £400,000 over unfair phone-ins

Mark Sweney and Leigh Holmwood

The Guardian,

July 31 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/31/bbc.television

The BBC has been fined a record £400,000 by Ofcom for "unfair conduct of viewer and listener competitions" in shows including Children in Need and Comic Relief.

Ofcom imposed the fine, the highest the media regulator has imposed on the BBC, for numerous breaches of its broadcasting code relating to "faking winners and misleading its audience".

Last year's BBC1 charity shows Comic Relief and Sport Relief have been hit with £45,000 fines and Children in Need from 2005 received a £35,000 Ofcom sanction. The name of a fictitious winner was read out on air on Children in Need.

Liz Kershaw's 6Music show, which faked winners of listener competitions on up to 17 occasions, got the biggest individual fine, £115,000.

The other Ofcom fines for viewer and listener deception were for the Jo Whiley show on Radio 1, £75,000; Russell Brand's 6 Music show, £17,500; the Clare McDonnell show on 6 Music, also £17,500; and BBC children's TV series TMi, £50,000.

In the Russell Brand show a staff member posed as a competition winner in an edition of the show that was billed as live but was recorded. Listeners who called or texted had no chance of winning. Ofcom singled out the digital station's former head of programming, Ric Blaxill, saying it was concerned that deception was undertaken with his "full knowledge".

The Jo Whiley show faked a competition winner on two occasions.

Ofcom can fine the BBC a maximum of £250,000 a transgression. The fines will be paid from licence fee payers' money to Revenue & Customs.

Overall, Ofcom found that the BBC failed to have "adequate management oversight" of its compliance and training procedures to ensure the audience was not misled. It added that although viewers and listeners paid the cost of their calls to take part in the contests, the BBC did not receive any money from the entries.

The BBC Trust, which holds the corporation to account, said it regretted that the fine would lead to a loss of licence fee payers' money. It said the BBC made a public apology last summer and "a firm commitment to put its house in order".

In a statement, the BBC said it had put in place a training programme for over 19,000 staff, technical protections, guidance to programme makers on the running of competitions and a strict code of conduct.

Broadcasters have so far been fined a total of £11.1m over fakery cases over the past year. Earlier this year ITV was fined a record £5.67m for the abuse of premium rate lines on shows including Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.