Taken from London REUTERS:

Regulators fined Channel 4's "Deal or No Deal" quiz show £30,000 on Thursday for misleading viewers taking part in a phone-in competition.

Premium rate regulator ICSTIS imposed the fine on the show's phone service provider iTouch.

It said the competition was unfair because contestants calling earlier to guess the amount of cash in one of three sealed boxes had greater chance of winning.

ITouch selected winners at 10-minute intervals during the show, giving those calling towards the end of the programme a slimmer chance of success.

The regulator also found that some viewers of the Noel Edmonds-hosted show may have been induced to take part because they thought it was broadcast live, whereas it was actually pre-recorded.

However, ICSTIS found that overall the breaches of its code of practice only constituted "moderate consumer harm.

The fine, which came with a formal reprimand, it is the latest penalty imposed on a television quiz show for deceiving viewers.

A string of phone-in related scandals have tarnished reputations across the UK television industry.

Last month ICSTIS fined the company responsible for the "You Say, We Pay" phone-in competition on Channel 4's Richard and Judy show a record 150,000 pounds.

Channel 4 said an internal review had uncovered the problems with the way iTouch selected winners for the "Deal or No Deal" quiz and that this procedure had now been changed.

The broadcaster had itself brought the issue to the attention of ICSTIS. It said iTouch would not be appealing the regulator's ruling.

Last week Channel 4 announced it was dropping all but one of its premium-rate phone-in competitions.

I wouldnt use the word 'hefty' to describe it....

But yeah this was always inevitable and they've just pointed out the simplest things wrong with it.

I wonder if they will scrap the competition at a filming break as they aren't going to be making money anyway (Apparently)

Hefty? It's only a drop in the ocean.

It's funny that nearly every news site is mentioning this, only it's Deal or No Deal. While Endemol's other show In The Grid hasn't been mentioned, yet, it used the same concept but had nine prizes to choose from.

Well TBH I don't think even Mr Abramovich would wanna lose £40,000 so it might just be me acting like I would do if I was fined £40,000 - I'd go apenuts!

If that is the case, they will resort to scrapping it. Why would they pay out cash prizes each day whilst not making any profit? Either that or there is a "Terms and Conditions" catch that we don't know about. Is it just a percentage of the profit that goes to charity?

In my opinion, anyone who chooses to enter in these competitions after the recent findings, are extremely foolish as they are all a con.

Thinking about it they are VERY likely to scrap it when the recorded shows run out, as this series has the postal vote which will in effect require extra staff to handle. More staff = More wages.

Very good point!

Anyway, I'm really looking to Monday to see how this new format gels with the rest of the game.

They clearly knew something was wrong or they wouldn't have changed the format; I'm very surprised it's taken this long, and I guess the five-figure magnitude of the fine (absolutely peanuts considering the show gives away that much in two half-decent days or one very good one) is partly because they recognised a problem.

I'm sure there will be no new shows recorded with any form of LTL now. The question is, is DoND still profitable on advertising revenue alone? If it isn't, there is no reason for it to still be on Channel 4.

Oh really? Well there must be a DoND quiz aswell then, not just the GAMESHOW

besides, £30,000? Hardly hefty for a game show with a top prize of £250,000 and a multi-gazillionaire host

It doesn't really surprise me that DOND ended up getting fined over their phone-in competition... there was an article in May about this and it seemed odd that DOND had escaped being fined as it did seem to have some flaws that were pointed out. I bet the woman who spent hundreds of pounds on the competition and reported it to the watchdog when she spotted the flaws is pleased...

They're making hundreds of thousands every day from the LTL so I don't think at all £30,000 is hefty!