Ofcom Could Fine ITV £4m

Ofcom could fine ITV a record £4 million following a six-month investigation into premium rate phone-in deception on its shows, according to a report.

MediaGuardian.co.uk reports that the proposed fine is £4 million, although the final figure has not been set yet.

If ITV is fined this amount, it will double the previous record, handed down to GMTV last year (see GMTV Given £2 Million Fine).

ITV viewers spent £7.8 million on phone calls which had no chance of winning on-air competitions or had no impact on the outcome of on air-votes on programmes including Saturday Night Takeaway and Soapstar Superstar

ITV chairman Michael Grade’s appointment of Deloitte to conduct an internal review, coupled with ITV’s promise to spend £18 million on compensation and other remedies, has helped mitigate the final total, reports MediaGuardian.

Th review, published in October, found serious editorial issues in three ITV programmes: Soapstar Superstar; Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway; and Ant and Dec’s Gameshow Marathon 2005 (see Deloitte ITV Review Highlights Serious Editorial Issues).

The Deloitte review also highlighted serious technical issues around the use of red button for voting and the late arrival of SMS text votes on five occasions affecting two ITV shows, including The X Factor final 2005.

Under the terms of its licence, Ofcom could have fined ITV up to 5% of its qualifying revenue, a total of £70 million.

In March, ITV revealed that its revenues from premium rate services were down by £58 million in 2007, following the phone-in scandals (see ITV Sees Premium Rate Revenues Fall).

Ofcom is still looking into about 20 other cases that emerged last year in revelations which fall into two categories: premium phone line fraud and crossing the line between acceptable editorial artifice and deception, said MediaGuardian.

Ofcom: 020 7981 3040 www.ofcom.org.uk

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com