Earlier in the year ITV was fined more than £5 million for premium rate phone-ins which weren't all as they should be.

The BBC has been fined £400,000 for its "faked" phone-ins, a record fine for the corporation.

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Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7497168.stm

Record fine over BBC's phone-ins

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The BBC has been fined £400,000 by media watchdog Ofcom for misleading its audiences by "faking" phone-ins.

The Comic Relief, Children in Need and Sport Relief TV shows were caught up in the scandal, along with Liz Kershaw on 6 Music and Jo Whiley's Radio 1 show.

The regulator's £400,000 penalty is a record for the corporation.

"The BBC deceived its audience by faking winners of competitions and deliberately conducting competitions unfairly," Ofcom said.

Viewers were urged to call some BBC programmes after contestants had already been chosen.

Other shows had been pre-recorded, so nobody could win apparently "live" competitions.

The affected shows were fined individually, totalling £400,000. They were:

• Comic Relief (BBC One, March 2007) - £45,000

• Sport Relief (BBC One, July 2006) - £45,000

• Children in Need (BBC One Scotland, November 2005) - £35,000

• TMi (BBC Two and CBBC, September 2006) - £50,000

• Liz Kershaw Show (BBC 6 Music, May 2005 to January 2006) - £115,000

• Jo Whiley Show (BBC Radio 1, 20 April to 12 May 2006) - £75,000

• Russell Brand (BBC 6 Music, April 2006) - £17,500

• Clare McDonnell Show (BBC 6 Music, from September 2006) - £17,500

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I heard a comment that the BBC fines were less than those imposed on ITV because there were no “premium rate” lines involved.

It appears that “local rate” and “national rate” are alive and well and living at Riverside House. These terms no longer retain their original meaning, as they are used to disguise revenue sharing, now that calls to geographic numbers are charged at the same rate regardless of distance.

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The adjudications make interesting reading.


The Comic Relief case “used a local call rate tariff, typically charged at 10p – 12p per call”

Viewers involved in the Sport Relief case “had to pay the cost of a local rate call”.

The Children In Need case involved a 0845 number. Ofcom reports that “The BBC has stated that there is some local rate charge on 0845 numbers”.

The TMI case involved an unusual type of “children’s” premium rate number, one from which the recipient recieves no revenue. “The programme used the CBBC premium rate phone system. The BBC premium rate telephony system in this case was designed to maintain call costs at the lowest practical levels for viewers (10p per call) and the BBC did not profit from the calls. However, calls made from mobiles will not have been charged at the capped flat rate. ”

The Liz Kershaw, Russell Brand and Clare McDonnell cases involved only SMS text messages. “SMS entry was charged at local rate and typically cost listeners between 10 and 12 pence. ”

The Jo Whiley case involved both telephone calls and SMS text messages. “Telephone entry was charged at 0870 national rate and typically cost listeners less than 10 pence. SMS entry was charged at local rate and typically cost listeners between 10 and 12 pence. ”

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Perhaps someone from the telecomms side of Ofcom should be asked to explain this nonsense that Ofcom has published. If colleagues concerned with broadcasting regulation apparently do not understand the basic principles of telephone call charging in practice, how on earth can Ofcom be seen to be doing its job for consumers and citizens in general.

Isn't this fine a bit of a con though seeing as it is basically a transfer of funds from TV License payers to OFCOM?

Fines go to HM Paymaster General.  I don't know if OfCom see it...

It's still robbing Peter to pay Paul though. If it wasn't practical to refund the callers who were ripped off, the money could have gone to charity. Or to the Say No website perhaps.....