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ITV fined £5.68m over phone-ins ITV fined £5.68m over phone-ins
(20 minutes later)
ITV has been fined a record £5.68m by Ofcom for abusing premium rate phone services in viewer competitions.ITV has been fined a record £5.68m by Ofcom for abusing premium rate phone services in viewer competitions.
The media regulator said the fine was by far the highest ever imposed and reflected the seriousness of ITV's failures and their repeated nature.The media regulator said the fine was by far the highest ever imposed and reflected the seriousness of ITV's failures and their repeated nature.
TV shows Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Gameshow Marathon and Soapstar Superstar were all found to have "serious editorial issues".TV shows Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Gameshow Marathon and Soapstar Superstar were all found to have "serious editorial issues".
Last year a report found viewers had spent millions on unfair competitions.Last year a report found viewers had spent millions on unfair competitions.
The previous highest fine of £2 million was imposed on GMTV by Ofcom in September 2007. Ofcom said it had uncovered "institutionalised failure within ITV" and programme-makers showed "total disregard" for their own terms and conditions and broadcasting codes.
Separately, ITV has pledged an additional £7.8 million for viewer compensation and to charity. 'Not very much'
This fact was taken into account by Ofcom in reaching its decision on the level of the fines. ITV made £7.8m from uncounted votes from the programmes in question and some 10 million telephone calls were affected.
The fine follows an investigation into phone-in irregularities on some of the commercial broadcaster's biggest shows, the findings of which were published in October. The broadcaster pledged to give back the sum to charity and for viewer compensation - and this fact was taken into account by Ofcom in reaching its decision on the level of the fines.
The penalty is almost three times higher than the previous record of £2 million that was imposed on GMTV by Ofcom in September 2007.
But as ITV could have been fined up to £70m - 5% of its commercial revenue - analysts have described the size of the fine as very small.
"For a company that's delivering to its shareholders £150m - £200m a year of free cashflow, i.e profit, money, this is on the pathetic end of not very much," broadcasting analyst Steve Hewlett told the BBC News channel.
As well as the fine, ITV will have to broadcast a summary of Ofcom's findings on six separate occasions.