ITV(ITV)

LONDON (ShareCast) - Commercial broadcaster ITV has been whacked with a huge £5.68m fine for misleading callers to its premium rate phone-in competitions.

"The fine, which is by far the highest imposed by Ofcom or any of the previous regulators, reflects not only the seriousness of ITV's failures but also their repeated nature," Ofcom said in a statement.

ITV has also agreed to donate an additional £7.8m for viewer compensation and to charity, without which the fine would have been ever higher Ofcom indicated.

By far the biggest fines, some £4.2m, related to abuses during comedy duo Ant & Dec's Saturday Takeaway and Gameshow Marathon shows.

Ofcom said the programme makers repeatedly chose members of the studio audience from the competition entrants on the basis of their suitability to be on screen. They also selected contestants before phone lines were closed.

Another ITV programme, Soapstar Superstar, received a fine of £1.2m for finalising results before the competition closed.

"ITV programme makers totally disregarded their own published terms and conditions and Ofcom Codes. Further there was a completely inadequate compliance system in place. The result was that millions of paying entrants were misled into believing they could fairly interact with some of ITV's most popular programmes," chairman of Ofcom's Content Sanctions Committee, Philip Graf said.

ITV executive chairman Michael Grade responded to the fine by saying: “'Ofcom's announcement today is an appropriate moment to restate ITV's unreserved apology to the public for breaches that took place between 2003 and January 2007.”

ITV has pledged an additional £7.8 million for viewer compensation and to charity. This fact was taken into account by Ofcom in reaching its decision on the level of the fines.

Ofcom's investigation considered information voluntarily supplied by ITV plc
from its review by auditors Deloitte and also material obtained by Ofcom during
its own investigations.

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