Grade tells MPs he expects criticism for ITV over phone-ins

by Staff, Brand Republic 24-Jul-07, 15:30

LONDON - ITV chairman Michael Grade has told MPs that he does not expect the broadcaster to escape criticism when a government committee reports back on public confidence in broadcasting, following the recent scandals.

Grade made the comments when appearing before the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee, giving evidence at a one-off session that has been called because of public concerns about widespread, systemic problems in the way that broadcasters, including the BBC, ITV, Five and Channel 4, have used premium-rate telephone services in their programmes.

He admitted to the committee that he would be "surprised" if ITV were given a clean bill of health. ITV's 'X Factor' and 'GMTV' are among the programmes accused of misleading viewers about phone-ins, along with Channel 4's 'Richard and Judy', 'Brainteaser' on Five, and others.

According to the BBC website, Grade, who left the Corporation to become ITV chairman in January, told the committee that he had been shocked to learn that some people "do not know that there is a line you do not cross".

Others called as witnesses are Mark Byford, deputy director-general, and Caroline Thomson, chief operating officer at the BBC. Last week, the BBC uncovered six new incidents where the public were deceived about competitions or phone-ins, adding to previously uncovered scandals, including an instance in the children's show 'Blue Peter' that saw the corporation fined £50,000 by Ofcom.

John Whittingdale, who is chairman of the committee, was critical that BBC 6 Music presenter Liz Kershaw was still on air, despite her programme having been mentioned as a repeat offender, with staff pretending to be quiz entrants on occasions when the programme was pre-recorded. Other senior staff have been suspended for similar occurrences, and the BBC has stopped all phone-in competitions for the time being.

Separately, Five has unveiled a viewer trust initiative, which involves reviewing its procedures and writing a handbook for independent producers, to ensure that viewers can have total faith in the broadcaster.

It will co-author the Independent Producers' Handbook with Channel 4, which is due to be published in autumn.

Five's chief executive, Jane Lighting, said: "We hope that these initiatives will help to rebuild the relationship of trust, which has been damaged by recent events, and that must exist between a broadcaster and its audience."

Comments

XXXXXXX XXXXXX - 24/07/2007

Too right bl**dy right Grade will have to answer to someone. I read somewhere Grade was in charge of auntie when 5 out of the six breaches on the phone line comps happened. He won't get summoned about that so he's getting off lightly IMHO