The BBC was fined £400 000 pounds on Wednesday after a string of top television and radio shows faked winners of their competitions.
The fine, imposed by media regulator Ofcom, is the latest in a string of similar scandals involving British broadcasters, which has tarnished their reputation for transparency, particularly over competitions.
In the latest round of revelations, Ofcom said that the producers of some shows had decided to broadcast competitions that viewers invited to take part in had no chance of winning.
Flagship charity telethon Comic Relief was one of the offenders. Ofcom said viewers were told that if they called in to pledge money, they would automatically be entered for a prize draw to win flights to the United States.
But it was only ever intended that five callers would be entered into the draw and, when only two could or would appear live on air for the final stage of the contest, a producer posed as fake winner “John from Essex”.
“Ofcom considered that these breaches of the [broadcasting] code were very serious,” Ofcom said in a statement.
“In each of these cases the BBC deceived its audience by faking winners of competitions and deliberately conducting competitions unfairly.”
In response, the BBC’s management issued a statement saying it took the issues “extremely seriously”, had apologised and had issued a strict new code of conduct on the issue.
It insisted that the BBC had not made any money from the “lapses”, which occurred between 2005 and 2007.
The fine — the biggest imposed by Ofcom against the BBC — is the latest in a string of recent embarrassments for British broadcasters.
In May, commercial channel ITV was hit with a record fine of nearly £5,7-million after Ofcom found it had manipulated the results of competitions for which viewers called in on premium-rate phone lines.
The BBC and Channel 4 have also been hit before. In one of the highest-profile cases last year, the BBC was fined £50 000 after a young studio guest posed as a fake competition winner on Blue Peter, one of Britain’s best-loved children’s shows. — AFP