BBC banked £106k of Children in Need phone-in cash

[Teddy Bear]

More BBC scandals come to light:

BBC banked £106,000 of Children in Need phone-in cash
Dan Sabbagh, Media Editor
The BBC was today forced to admit to another phone-in scandal in which £106,000 that should have gone to charity was in fact banked by the corporation.

Viewers who called to take part in fundraising phone-ins but whose calls were made just after the lines had closed, were still charged for the call but a BBC subsidiary hung onto the money.

Sir Michael Lyons, the chairman of the BBC trust, which uncovered the practise, said that this was "a serious failure". He added: "This did not help the BBC or the people we serve."

Sir Michael ordered the corporation to hand over the cash due to the charities with interest resulting in a payment of £123,000, and said that disciplinary action could follow.

The phone calls were handled by a BBC subsidiary called Audiocall, part of the BBC's commercial arm. It organised phone-ins for the majority of the BBC's fundraisers - which include programmes such as Children in Need. It is understood that there were problems with over a dozen programmes.

The BBC also had to admit that it had left out £6,000-worth of phone-in votes in this year's British heat of the Eurovision Song Contest. One of the programme's presenters - Sir Terry Wogan and Fearne Cotton - mistakenly called for votes before the phone lines had opened and while callers were charged, their votes were not counted.

Sir Michael said that the mistake did not affect the results of the competition, which was won by boy-girl band Scooch. However, it is a further embarrassment for a programme which saw Sir Terry mistakenly announce the wrong winner at the end of the show.

The BBC's revelations come just a day after ITV admitted that a comedy award was wrongly presented to Ant and Dec when viewers had voted for Catherine Tate instead. ITV was also fined £5.7million by regulator Ofcom for a string of other phone-in breaches.

[Teddy Bear]

Another article but more in-depth on the subject from The Telegraph. The fact that BBC staff knowingly withheld money intended for charity shows the level of depravity held by them.

BBC kept £100,000 meant for charity
By Nicole Martin, Digital and Media Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:49AM BST 10/05/2008
The BBC faces fresh embarrassment after admitting that it failed to pass on £106,000 to charity from premium-rate telephone votes on more than 20 programmes, including last year's UK Eurovision final.
In the latest scandal to engulf the corporation, a "handful" of staff knowingly held back money from calls that should have gone to charitable organisations, including the BBC's Children in Need.

In the case of Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2007, the BBC also admitted that viewers were wrongly encouraged to vote for a winner before phone lines had even opened. Although the error did not affect the result of the contest, with Scooch rightly being named as the group to represent the UK, the BBC has decided to hand over £6,000 to charity, which covers the cost of the ineligible calls.

The latest irregularities came to light after the BBC commissioned an accountancy firm to look into the workings of its premium rate services on more than 300 programmes following the row over rigged phone-in competitions last year.

Its report found that staff at Audiocall, a premium rate phone operator which is part of the BBC's commercial arm, were holding back money from premium rate calls, which were mistakenly made by viewers when voting lines had closed. The BBC Trust, the corporation's governing body, refused to identify the shows involved, but they could include Children in Need, Sport Relief and Comic Relief.

These programmes have already been found guilty of faking competition winners along with other BBC shows including Blue Peter.

Sir Michael Lyons, the trust's chairman, said that all the money had now been given to charity with interest, making a total of £123,000.

He called on Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, to look at whether a "small number" of BBC Worldwide staff should be investigated and disciplined.

For the first time he has ordered the BBC to apologise on air for the breach of trust.

"This is a matter of serious misjudgement by a small number of people and a serious failing in the way the BBC controlled its premium rate lines and, therefore, its relationship with viewers," he said.

"However, this was not company policy nor was it known about within the wider BBC. In no way do the programmes concerned have any responsibility for this."

He said that technology had been introduced to stop viewers being charged for making calls when phone lines had closed.

The disclosures come only weeks before the BBC is expected to be fined up to £250,000 by Ofcom for repeatedly deceiving viewers on a number of shows.

They also follow ITV's record £5.67 million penalty for cheating viewers out of millions of pounds in premium rate phone-in competitions.