UK regulator fines BBC £400,000 for fake contests

In what will come as a surprise to many and perhaps not so to some, the venerable British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), the world's oldest public-service broadcaster, has been fined £400,000 ($793,000) by media watchdog Office of Communications (Ofcom) for misleading its audiences by "faking" phone-ins.

"The BBC deceived its audience by faking winners of competitions and deliberately conducting competitions unfairly," Ofcom said in a statement issued yesterday. The fine is the largest penalty the media watchdog has ever issued to the British broadcaster.

Eight BBC programmes were specifically cited by the regulator and issued individual fines (which when tallied total £400,000):

  • Liz Kershaw Show, for episodes that aired on BBC 6 Music between May 2005 and January 2006 - fined £115,000.
  • Jo Whiley Show, for episodes that aired on BBC Radio 1 in April and May 2006 - - fined £75,000.
  • TMi, for episodes in September 2006 - fined £50,000.
  • The Comic Relief charity telethon, which aired on BBC One in March 2007 - fined £45,000.
  • The Sport Relief charity telethon, which aired on BBC One in July 2006 - fined £45,000.
  • The Children in Need charity telethon, which aired on BBC One in Scotland in November 2005 - fined £35,000.
  • Russell Brand, which aired on BBC 6 Music in April 2006 - fined £17,500.
  • Clare McDonnell Show, which aired on BBC 6 Music in September 2006 - fined £17,500.

Some shows invited callers to participate in contests despite having pre-recorded segments with its own production staff posing as winners. Others were found to have read out fictitious names as winners. Ofcom noted that several shows were repeat offenders.

Ofcom said some programme-makers knew audiences had no chance of winning competitions, but broadcast them anyway.

"In some cases, the production team had taken premeditated decisions to broadcast competitions and encourage listeners to enter in the full knowledge that the audience stood no chance of winning," the watchdog said. "In other cases, programmes faced with technical problems made up the names of winners.