BBC Kept Phone-In Charity Money

The BBC has revealed that it kept £106,000 made from phone-ins which was supposed to go to charity.

It added that the money has now been paid with interest to the charities.

The news comes hot on the heels of Ofcom’s record fine for ITV over its part in last year’s phone-in scandal (see ITV Handed Record £5.675m Fine Over Phone-In Scandal).

The phone-in problems involved BBC Worldwide subsidiary Audiocall, which provides premium-rate phone lines to several BBC shows.

In a statement, the BBC said that the £106,000 “was in relation to calls made outside of the window in which votes were counted in a number of shows over a two year period, ending in August 2007. This was a serious oversight in Audiocall which must never be allowed to happen again”.

“Separately, in one instance in the show Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2007, communication problems on the show meant a large volume of calls came in when the lines were not open. Neither the staff of this or any other programme, nor anyone else using Audiocall, were aware of the problem with the charity money.”

BBC Trust chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, said that new technology has since been introduced which meant the problem had been resolved.

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk