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Ofcom fine £80k for TV comedy awards fix
02.10.09
Ofcom imposed an £80,000 fine today after Ant and Dec were falsely named as winners of a British Comedy Award.
The TV watchdog fined Channel TV for breaches of its broadcasting code in the awards show on ITV1 in 2004 and 2005. The fine also covered a phone vote that continued on air although the show was pre-recorded.
Ant and Dec were given the “people's choice” award in 2005 despite the Catherine Tate Show taking the most votes. The production team overrode the poll. Channel TV was responsible for ensuring the shows met standards.
ITV said it “very much regretted” that viewers were let down by Channel TV, to which it is not commercially connected.
Ofcom said today: “These breaches were entirely foreseeable and were serious, reckless and repeated.”
Reader views (3)
This just goes to show who these tastless TV cheap shows are really for.Sure as hell are not for the general public.Just to massage the huge egos of talentless nobodies
- Selwyn Channon, epsom
British TV comedy has been taken over ad features a small band of comics trying to look and peddling similar acts to what they did twenty years ago. Diversity of style, material and faces has long been buried. Creativity and wit, RIP.
- Dave Allen, London
Please, no-one ever ever vote on these horrid shows again.
- Rod, Epping, UK
