ITV fined £5.7m for premium rate scandal

[nj2006]

ITV was today fined £5.68m for a string of scandals involving the use of premium rate phone and text services in its programmes.

The largest fine of £3m was for various offences on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway including picking competition winners based on where they lived and their "suitability to be on television".

For offences on Soapstar Superstar, Ofcom ordered ITV-owned Granada Television to pay £1.2m. Producers ignored some votes for songs and nominations for eviction.

A list of other abuses - which constituted breaches of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code and often ITV's own terms and conditions - included allowing viewers to continue calling when phone lines had closed.

Other programmes at fault included I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!, Ant & Dec’s Gameshow Marathon, ITV Playalong, The Mint and Glitterball.

Often the abuses meant that ITV made money from viewers' calls when they had no chance of winning competitions or contributing to reality TV programmes.

Though the broadcaster has been cooperating with Ofcom's investigations since the problems first came to light, the regulator has criticised it for failing to investigate the use of premium rate services in regional programming. "(A) lack of information appears to indicate an absence of robust systems in place in the operation of PRS in regional programming", Ofcom said.

The most recent programme found to be in breach was an episode of People's Court on March 17. Despite it being a repeat, a message was displayed inviting viewers to vote.

Though today's fine was the largest ever handed out by Ofcom, it fell far below the £70m maximum available to the regulator.

Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said: "This was a thorough set of investigations which uncovered institutionalised failure within ITV that enabled the broadcaster to make money from misconduct on mass audience programmes.

"The industry can be in no doubt how seriously Ofcom takes the issue of audience trust. Our new licence conditions requiring broadcasters who operate in this area to conduct third party audits will ensure that consumers are protected."