ITV Fined for serious breaches of code

The communications and media regulator, Ofcom, has finally come up with the amount that ITV will be fined for some of the most serious breaches of the broadcasting code and even their own terms and conditions.

ITV will be fined a record breaking £5.68 million by Ofcom for the misuse of premium phone lines for competitions related to TV programmes.

However despite the hefty fine, there were in fact over ten million calls made that were considered to be wasted as the results had already been decided.

The total revenue from these calls would have been around the £8 million mark, but ITV have said that they would be giving the profits to charity.

Although this fine is the largest ever handed out, it could have been so much worse for ITV, as the regulator would have been well within their rights to fine them up to five per cent of the commercial revenues.

This would have made the fine something in the region of £70 million, so maybe ITV got off lightly there.

ITV will now have to broadcast the Ofcom decision on six occasions. This will enable every one to hear what has been decided and why.