UK Edition
Feeds
Ofcom has fined the BBC a record £400,000 for a series of occasions on which it "deceived its audience by faking winners of competitions and deliberately conducting competitions unfairly".
The regulator said that on eight occasions spanning from July 2005 to March 2007, the BBC "deliberately" conducted viewer and listener competitions "unfairly" on BBC One, BBC Two, CBBC, Radio 1, and 6 Music.
Its content sanctions committee fined the BBC: £115,000 for 17 incidents of fakery on 6 Music's Liz Kershaw Show; £75,000 for 2 incidents during Jo Whiley's Radio 1 programme; £50,000 for an incident on children's TV show TMi in September 2006; £45,000 for fakery in Sport Relief 2006 and another penalty of the same amount for Comic Relief 2007; £35,000 for a faked winner in the Scottish national opt-out of Children in Need in November 2005; and £17,500 each for separate incidents during Russell Brand and Clare McDonnell's shows on 6 Music.
"The investigations found that in some cases, the production team had taken pre-mediated decisions to broadcast competitions and encourage listeners to enter in the full knowledge that the audience stood no chance of winning," said Ofcom. "In other cases, programmes faced with technical problems made up the names of winners."
In response, the BBC Trust said: "Ofcom's decisions today relate to cases considered by the BBC Trust in 2007 which led to remedial action by the BBC and significant changes in the way the BBC complies competitions and programmes. The Trust regrets that these serious breaches by the BBC have led to a financial penalty being applied by Ofcom and the loss of licence fee payers' money as a result.
"Ofcom requires compliance with its Broadcasting Code and can impose sanctions when a broadcaster breaches that code. We recognise that the penalty in these cases reflects that the breaches were serious, deliberate and in some cases repeated."
"These editorial failures were serious and, through our work, we are confident they have been taken seriously by those involved. Our concern now is ensuring that the highest editorial standards are maintained to safeguard the public's trust."
A subsequent statement from BBC management added: "We accept Ofcom's findings. We have taken these issues extremely seriously from the outset, apologising to our audiences and putting in place an unprecedented action plan to tackle the issues raised. This includes a comprehensive programme of training for over 19,000 staff, rigorous new technical protections, new guidance to programme-makers on the running of competitions and a strict new Code of Conduct.
"Ofcom has recognised that neither the BBC nor any member of staff made any money from these serious editorial lapses. Whilst we must never be complacent and must remain constantly vigilant, audience research suggests the comprehensive action we have taken is rebuilding the trust of viewers and listeners."
