In shows produced by Cheetah, a subsidiary of Big Brother
producer Endemol, production staff posed as winners on numerous
occasions, a move which the regulator said "substantially misled"
viewers and competition entrants.
"What started as a single attempt – unacceptable in itself – to
resolve production difficulties in finding a winner had become an
established procedure," said Ofcom's ruling. "The formalised
procedure that had been adopted by the programme was totally
unacceptable and showed a blatant disregard for not only the
audience of the show, but also those participating and spending
money by entering some competitions which were not being run
fairly.
"The editorial needs of the programme overrode the consideration
of fairness to those participating in the competitions and to the
audience overall," it said.
Daytime shows Brainteaser and its spin off Memory Bank had faked
winners on a number of occasions, Ofcom's investigation found. When
viewers with the correct answers could not be found to go on air
live, production crew members pretended to win, it found.
This happened five times in 2007 alone, Ofcom found, and had
been going on since 2003. The activity was carried out by Cheetah
production staff despite Channel Five guidelines on fairness.
"The Committee was in no doubt that Channel 5 had acted in good
faith at all times and had not intended its service to deceive the
audience. It clearly had extensive compliance procedures in place
through which it sought to ensure compliance and had regularly
monitored and reviewed the procedures for conducting the
competitions," said the ruling.
"The Committee noted that Endemol was a large and experienced
production company and understood Channel 5’s reasons for believing
it was well equipped to produce such a programme. However, on the
evidence available to it, the Committee considered that this
confidence had been misplaced and that Endemol appeared to have
failed to take the necessary steps to deliver a compliant
programme," said Ofcom.
The ruling said that the procedures of both Endemol and Channel
5 seemed to be geared more towards the smooth running of the
programme than towards treating its audience and competition
entrants fairly.
Endemols' Cheetah acknowledged in a statement that it had made
errors. "While fundamental errors of judgment were made on these
few occasions, Ofcom's report clearly demonstrates that these came
down to an honest but misguided attempt to keep a live show
running," it said.
Channel 5 said that it would not appeal the fine and would pay
it itself. "Five has always accepted that breaches occurred with
regard to Brainteaser," said chief executive Jane Lighting.
"However, we are disappointed with the very high level of the
financial penalty imposed, especially as we believe Five took all
reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure the programme complied
with the Ofcom Code."
Channel 5 Ltd must pay the £300,000 fine and must broadcast a
statement of Ofcom's findings twice, once at the time of day when
Brainteaser was shown and once at prime time. Both the affected
programmes have been discontinued.
