Ofcom rules on phone-in scandals

Broadcast regulator Ofcom has imposed an £80,000 fine for the voting scandals that hit the 2004 and 2005 British Comedy Awards.

The viewers’ poll was completely ignored in 2005, with the People’s Choice prize going to Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, even though The Catherine Tate Show amassed the most votes.

And in both years, viewers were encouraged to call premium-rate numbers to vote after the lines had closed – because the segment of the ceremony broadcast after the news was no longer live.

After a 21-month investigation, Ofcom today imposed the fine on Channel TV, the ITV franchise-holder responsible for ensuing the show complied with broadcasting regulations.

The watchdog accepted that it was a member of the production team, not Channel TV, who overrode the viewers’ vote for Catherine Tate but says the company should have had safeguards in place.

In issuing a £35,000 fine for this incident, the regulators said: ‘Channel TV should have been aware of… the possibility of poll tampering and the need for vote verification. Its failure to take even rudimentary steps to ensure that safeguards were in place increased the ease with which the deception could occur.’

One theory put forward was that Robbie Williams, who presented the People’s Choice Award, would only attend if he could present an award to Ant and Dec.

Another is that member of either the independent production team or the telephony provider, changed the result following comments made by an ITV employee.

Ofcom said it was ‘unable to conclude definitively’ whether or not the substitution took place as a result of either these alleged incidents.

Channel TV was also fined £45,000 for the soliciting of calls after lines had closed in 2004 and 2005. The broadcaster admitted this was ‘entirely unintentional but nonetheless stupid’ consequence of transmitting the second half of the show live.

However, Ofcom ruled: ‘Despite the obvious nature of the “as live” breach, Channel TV failed to anticipate it in advance of the broadcast of the British Comedy Awards 2004, nor did it identify it during or after the broadcast. It then repeated the same breach in 2005.’

Unique Communications Group, which makes the awards show through its subsidiary Michael Hurll Television, issued a statement saying: 'We are appalled and deeply regret that the British Comedy Awards, which has been a much loved event for 20 years, should have been affected by the actions on one occasion of certain senior people who were entrusted with its production. Changes were made to the awards show in 2006 and 2007 to ensure that the issues could not arise again.

Over the last two years we have been unrelenting in our efforts to try and discover the truth about how the ‘selection’ issue occurred. We are disappointed that after more than two years of investigation the published findings as to those who are responsible remain inconclusive.

'We will continue to co-operate fully with any further investigations that may take place and are committed to playing our part in finding an early conclusion to this matter.'

Published: 2 Oct 2009