ITV faces biggest-ever Ofcom fine over phone vote rigging

The fine is the latest in a long line of reprimands and fines for broadcasters and premium-rate phone companies over the past year. Ofcom's previous record high fine was last year's £2 million sanction on GMTV.

The chair of the Association for Interactive Media and Entertainment (AIME), which represents premium rate phone companies, told technology law podcast OUT-LAW Radio that it was right that companies that had abused the system were punished, but that some of the blame had to attach to the regulators, Ofcom and premium-rate phone regulator PhonepayPlus.

"Clearly there was non-compliance and that non-compliance has been fined and quite rightly so," said Sally Weatherall, AIME chair, about the series of broadcaster fines. "I just don't think at a very basic level there was sufficient transparency and enforcement of the regulations."

Ofcom and PhonepayPlus have been criticised for perceived confusion in who was regulating what parts of the market and how they worked together to co-ordinate responsibility for premium rate providers, television broadcasters and production companies.

Ofcom subsequently overhauled the way that regulation of the market works and said that it would make broadasters responsible for competitions and abuses of phone lines.

ITV was fined over the selection of competition finalists before phone lines had closed, meaning paying competitors had no chance of winning; selecting competition finalists because of where they lived or whether they were suitable TV participants; the placing of known contestants on shortlists; ignoring viewer votes and over-riding viewer choices; and failing to inform viewers of repeat programmes that the programme was recorded and phone calls to premium lines would be wasted.

Weatherall said that she thought broadcasters who made interaction a central part of programming, and a vital revenue generator, simply did not understand that they had to engage with the regulations for premium phone lines.

"I think what was greatly underestimated, and frankly I don't think there was very much transparency about it at all, was the regulation and responsibility in terms of operating these services," said Weatherall. "I do think it was as straightforward as there being a compete lack of transparency in terms of the broadcasters making the connection that this was a premium rate service and was therefore regulated. It's a new sector of the industry outside of their traditional Ofcom-licensed broadcast environment."

Ofcom said that ITV failed to act properly or even to have systems in place to track its impropriety.

“ITV programme makers totally disregarded their own published terms and conditions and Ofcom Codes," said Philip Graf, chairman of Ofcom’s Content Sanctions Committee. "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.”

The premium-rate phone line scandal has affected every UK terrestrial broadcaster and has hit household name programmes such as Blue Peter, Richard and Judy, Deal Or No Deal, I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.