Channel 4 is fined £1.5m by Ofcom

Channel Four has been fined £1.5m by media watchdog Ofcom for misconduct involving phone-in competitions on Richard and Judy and Deal or No Deal.

Viewers were urged to call a premium number after contestants had already been chosen on Richard and Judy.

Deal or No Deal selected competition finalists in a way which gave later entrants less chance of winning.

Eckoh UK, the company behind Richard and Judy competition You Say, We Pay, has already been fined £150,000.

Investigation

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

The incident relates to a period which began on 28 August 2006 and ended on 13 May 2007.

Following press reports about the conduct of TV phone-in competitions in the spring, Channel 4 commissioned an independent investigation which found the Deal or No Deal competition during this period was unfair.

Channel 4 was notified of the findings in March this year, but continued to use the practice of "staggered selection" for a further seven weeks.

Ofcom found this selection process created unfair odds which meant viewers entering the competition were not given a fair and equal chance of winning.

In particular, later entrants had a lower statistical probability of being shortlisted as a potential winner, compared to those who entered earlier.

iTouch, the company that ran the competition during the period in question, was fined £30,000 in July by PhonepayPlus, the phone-in competitions watchdog.

Yup, that'll be the end of the LTL, and that means that DoND's future is entirely dependent upon getting the viewers in. And how long can that last?

Perhaps Endemol will find other ways to save on money by cutting back on certain things.

I think they've already cut back on the editing department judging by recent shows.