£80k fine over TV award fix

BRITISH TV regulator Ofcom imposed an £80,000 (€87,000) fine yesterday after a prize-fix incident at ITV1’s British Comedy Awards which wrongly named Ant and Dec as the People’s Choice winners.

The fine to Channel TV, which was responsible for ensuring the show met standards, also covered appeals for viewers to continue voting even though polling had closed as the shows, in both 2004 and 2005, had already been recorded.

The incidents came to light after a number of TV phone-voting scandals which led to a shake-up in the industry.

Ant and Dec were given their award in 2005, even though the Catherine Tate Show received the highest number of votes. The production team overrode the popular vote.