ITV fined a massive £5.68 million
p2pnet news | TV:- Britain’s ITV has been fined a record £5.68 million (about $11,098,5767) for “abusing premium rate phone services in viewer competitions”.
So says the BBC.
UK regulators Ofcom said the fine was by far the highest ever imposed, “and reflected the seriousness of ITV’s failures and their repeated nature,” says the story, going on:
“TV shows Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, Gameshow Marathon and Soapstar Superstar were all found to have ’serious editorial issues’.
‘Last year a report found viewers had spent millions on unfair competitions.”
Says the Guardian >>>
On Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, viewers being entered for the Jiggy Bank competition – the one featuring a giant pig full of cash – had no chance of being selected unless they lived within an hour of where the production team happened to be.
On Gameshow Marathon, potential winners of the Prize Mountain were picked on the basis of whether they “sounded lively”, with a short list drawn from people who lived in the same area and could be visited at the same time.
And on Soapstar Superstar, the production team ignored viewer votes on about a fifth of occasions and picked songs they thought more suitable for contestants to sing.
The Ofcom fine is still, “short of the £7.8m viewers wasted on premium phone calls to ITV programmes,” says the story, adding:
” ITV has committed to reimburse viewers and donate unclaimed money to charities.”
.
.Stumble It!
BBC – ITV hit with record £5.68m fine, May 8, 2008
Guardian – ITV: what a bunch of stinkers, May 8, 2008
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May 8th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Even after reimbursing viewers and donating unclaimed money, they have still made millions. It’s about time they started cracking down on these scams, but it still appears to be lucrative after shakedown
May 8th, 2008 at 8:01 am
ITV’s attempt to salvage itself after Charles Allen seems to be more difficult and cumbersome than usual!