Adjudication of the Ofcom Content Sanctions Committee - LWT (Holdings) Limited, in respect of its service the Regional Channel 3 service transmitted across the ITV Network on ITV1
| Published date | 08 May 2008 |
| Issuer | Office of Communications |
Ofcom Content Sanctions Committee
Consideration of
sanction against LWT (Holdings) Limited (“LWT” or the “Licensee”), in
respect of its service the Regional Channel 3 service
(“Channel 3”) transmitted across the ITV Network on
ITV1.
For Unfair conduct in the viewer competitions Jiggy Bank,
Grab the Ads and Win the Ads in Ant & Dec’s Saturday
Night Takeaway (“Takeaway”), as follows:
Jiggy Bank
1) Pre-selection of all geographical locations at
which the competition was to be conducted (of
which viewers were unaware);
2) Selecting winners on the basis of their suitability
to be on screen, which overrode requirements for
random selection;
3) Pre-selecting a finalist on one occasion (who
went on to win) and a winner on another occasion
for editorial reasons, which overrode requirements
for random selection;
Resulting in breaches of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code
(the “Code”) of:
Rule 2.11: “Competitions should be conducted fairly,
prizes should be described accurately and rules should
be clear and appropriately made known.”
In Series 6 (9 September to 21 October 2006).
Grab the Ads
1) Early selection of competition finalists before
final ‘calls to action’ were broadcast;
2) Staggered selection of competition finalists;
3) Selecting finalists on the basis of their suitability
to be on screen, which overrode requirements for
random selection;
4) Taking into account entrants’ geographical
locations when selecting finalists, which overrode
requirements for random selection;
Resulting in breaches of the Code of:
Rule 2.11: “Competitions should be conducted fairly,
1
prizes should be described accurately and rules should
be clear and appropriately made known.”
In Series 6 (9 September to 21 October 2006) and 24
December 2005 Christmas special programme.
Resulting in breaches of the ITC Programme Code
2002 (the “ITC Code”) in force from January 2002 until
24 July 2005 of:
Rule 8.2(b) Use of Premium Rate Telephone
Services in Programmes: “The licensee must retain
control of and responsibility for the service
arrangements and the premium line messages
(including all matters relating to their content).”
In Series 2, 3, 4 and 5 (14 January 2003 to 16 April
2005).
Win the Ads
1) Selecting members of the studio audience from
the competition entrants on the basis of their
suitability to be on screen, which overrode
requirements for random selection
Resulting in breaches of the Code of:
Rule 2.11: “Competitions should be conducted fairly,
prizes should be described accurately and rules should
be clear and appropriately made known.”
In Series 6 (9 September to 21 October 2006) and 24
December 2005 Christmas special programme.
Resulting in breaches of the ITC Code of:
Rule 8.2(b) Use of Premium Rate Telephone
Services in Programmes: “The licensee must retain
control of and responsibility for the service
arrangements and the premium line messages
(including all matters relating to their content).”
In Series 2, 3, 4 and 5 (14 January 2003 to 16 April
2005).
Decision To impose a financial penalty (payable to HM
Paymaster General) of £3,000,000 and, in addition, to
require LWT to broadcast a statement of Ofcom’s
findings on its service ITV1 in a form to be determined
by Ofcom on two specified occasions.
2
Summary
1.1 For the reasons set out in full in the Decision, under powers delegated from
the Ofcom Board to Ofcom’s Content Sanctions Committee (the
“Committee”), the Committee decided to impose statutory sanctions on LWT
in light of the serious nature of its failures to ensure compliance with the
Ofcom Broadcasting Code (the “Code”) and the ITC Programme Code 2002
(the “ITC Code”) (together, the “relevant Codes”).
1.2 This adjudication under the relevant Codes relates to the broadcast of the
Jiggy Bank competition in Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway
(“Takeaway”) on ITV1 between 9 September to 21 October 2006 and the
broadcast of the Grab the Ads and Win the Ads competitions in Takeaway on
ITV1 between 14 January 2003 and 21 October 2006.
1.3 Channel 3 (ITV1) is the third national public service channel. It is a free-to-air,
commercially funded, national television broadcast channel. There are fifteen
regional Channel 3 licensees, including LWT, which is the relevant licensee in
this case.
1.4 Takeaway was a weekly Saturday evening entertainment programme
broadcast on ITV1. The programme involved a number of different elements,
including playing practical jokes on celebrities, interviews and viewer, studio
audience and celebrity competitions.
1.5 On 5 March 2007, following articles in the press concerning broadcast
premium rate services (“PRS”) competitions, ITV plc (“ITV”), LWT’s parent
company, launched an investigation into the use of PRS in its programming in
general. On 18 October 2007, ITV announced that its investigations had
identified serious editorial issues in three ITV programmes, including
Takeaway. The issues identified in relation to Takeaway related to three
interactive viewer competitions: (1) Jiggy Bank (introduced in the 2006 series)
and (2) Grab the Ads and (3) Win the Ads (which both featured in the 2003,
two 2004, 2005 and 2006 series and the 24 December 2005 Christmas
special programme).
Jiggy Bank
1.6 The winner of the Jiggy Bank competition would ride a giant model piggy
bank to dislodge as much as possible of the 5,000 £1.00 coins inside, which
he/ she would win. Viewers entered a PRS text message (“SMS”) competition
to ride the pig in any of the following weeks’ episodes by sending a SMS
message to a specified number. Jiggy Bank was introduced in the series
running from 9 September to 21 October 2006.
1.7 The terms and conditions of the Jiggy Bank competition stated that a random
shortlist of potential winners would be selected from all the valid entries to the
competition. Those on the shortlist would be contacted by the production
team to ensure that they met health and safety criteria. The winner would
then be randomly selected from those on the shortlist who met the health and
safety criteria to ride the giant piggy bank.
3
To continue reading
Request your trial