Phone-in quiz fiddle costs Channel 4 £1.5m

Published on Thursday 20 December 2007 21:20

CHANNEL 4 was hit with a fine of £1.5 million by the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom yesterday, for misconduct in Richard and Judy's You Say We Pay competition and a quiz on Deal Or No Deal.

Finalists for the Richard and Judy quiz were picked before lines closed.

In Deal Or No Deal, presented by Noel Edmonds, viewers entering the competition were not given a fair and equal chance of winning.

Channel 4 has been told to broadcast a summary of Ofcom's findings on three separate occasions.

Neither of the quizzes, which used premium rate numbers, is still on air.

Channel 4 has apologised to viewers.

Early callers to the Deal or No Deal competition had more of a chance of being selected than later callers.

Collectively, the fine is the second largest imposed by Ofcom following a 2 million sanction against GMTV in September.

Telephone lines, costing around 1 a call, to the Richard And Judy teatime quiz officially closed just after 5.35pm.

But from September 2004, a shortlist of finalists was drawn up at around 5.20pm, while the telephone lines were still open and the programme was still soliciting viewers to enter.

Ofcom said: "Viewers who called to enter the competitions on the basis that they had a fair and equal chance of winning, in fact had no chance of becoming a finalist after early selection had taken place."

Channel 4's group finance director, Anne Bulford, said: "Channel 4 is no longer running any premium rate competitions, so we believe today's ruling brings this chapter to a close.

"We would like to apologise once again to those affected and to assure all our viewers that Channel 4 is committed to applying the lessons learned across all its activities and to doing everything in its power to regain and maintain their trust."