Ofcom has ruled the BBC has broken competition rules on a number of its charity fundraising and radio shows.
The regulatory body fined the broadcaster £400,000 for infringement of rules in four TV shows, including
Comic Relief and
Children in Need, and four radio shows, including the
Russell Brand Show.
The report reads: "Ofcom considered that these breaches of the Code were very serious. In each of these cases the BBC deceived its audience byfaking winners of competitions and deliberately conducting competitions unfairly."
Made-up
"The investigations found that in some cases, the production team had taken pre-mediated decisions to broadcast competitions and encourage listeners to enter in the full knowledge that the audience stood no chance of winning.
"In other cases, programmes faced with technical problems, made up the names of winners."
This is the highest financial penalty dished out from Ofcom to the Beeb, highlighting the severity of the breach.
The report makes no reference to 'Socksgate', where a Blue Peter cat was named 'Socks' despite the public voting for the name 'Cookie', apparently due to the name having possible reference to 'adult' material.
Or just because it's a rubbish name for a cat.
More... 
30-07-2008
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