Ofcom fines BBC for Blue Peter breaches

Ofcom has today fined the BBC a total of £50,000 for breaches of its Broadcasting Code in the ‘live’ transmission of Blue Peter on BBC1 on 27 November 2006 and the repeated edition on CBBC.
This is the first occasion that Ofcom has imposed a financial penalty against the BBC.

The BBC was fined £45,000 for using a studio guest to pose as the winner of a viewer telephone competition in the 'live' broadcast of Blue Peter on BBC1.

The broadcaster was found in breach of the following rules in the Broadcasting Code:

Rule 2.11 - "Competitions should be conducted fairly......"; and

Rule 1.26 - "Due care must be taken over the physical and emotional welfare and the dignity of people under eighteen who take part or are otherwise involved in programmes...."

The programme was then repeated in full, including the falsified competition, on CBBC. Although a caption was displayed stating that competition lines were closed, the telephone number was still visible and the lines were still open. This also resulted in a further breach of Rule 2.11 of the Code. The BBC was fined £5,000 for this breach.

The full Adjudication is available at:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/obb/ocsc_adjud/bbc.pdf

This is one of a number of current Ofcom investigations into individual programmes in the area of Call TV. These are being dealt with on a case-by-case basis and several of them will be concluded over the summer.

Separately, the inquiry led by Richard Ayre into the use of premium rate telephone services in television programmes, is ongoing. The findings of the inquiry will also be published this summer.