BBC fined £95,000 for serious breaches in radio shows

by Darren Davidson, Brand Republic 18-Dec-08, 12:30

LONDON - The BBC has been fined £95,000 for running phone-in competitions in two pre-recorded radio programmes, including Dermot O'Leary's Radio 2 show.

Ofcom imposed the penalty for "serious" breaches of its code in shows broadcast on Radio 2 and BBC London 94.9FM.

The BBC encouraged listeners to participate in phone-in competitions in pre-recorded programmes that were broadcast "as live" when it knew they stood no chance of winning, Ofcom said.

The regulator fined the corporation £70,000 over editions of Dermot O'Leary's Radio 2 show broadcast between June and December 2006.

The corporation has also been ordered to pay £25,000 for breaches in Tony Blackburn's BBC London programme between December 2005 and December 2006.

The BBC must also broadcast a statement of Ofcom's findings on both the stations.

Ofcom said: "The BBC invited listeners to enter these competitions at the time of the broadcasts, in the full knowledge that the audience stood no chance of either entering or winning."

The fine follows the one Ofcom imposed earlier this year for a whopping £400,000 for faking winners for competitions in eight TV and radio shows between 2005 and 2007.

The biggest fine was £115,000 and related to BBC 6 Music's 'The Liz Kershaw Show' which, Ofcom judged, faked winners of the competitions 'Ruff Riff' and 'Listening Post' on up to 17 occasions between July 25 2005 and January 6 2007.

Comments

marcus evans - 21/12/2008

Jonathan Ross receives a penalty of well over a million smackers and I assume Russel Brand would have been similarly punished if he hadn't told them to poke it. A senior producer resignes and offended multitudes bay for blood over the \(albeit misguided) airing of a show which \(with appended expletives) discloses what is basically a true account of events to the grandfather of a publicly wayward granddaughter. Here the BBC commits what ammounts to fraud, on multiple occasions and gets fined less than 100,000 pounds. Is it just me or is this totally wrong?