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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| Channel 4 is fined £1.5m by Ofcom | Channel 4 is fined £1.5m by Ofcom |
| (41 minutes later) | |
| 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. | 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. | 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. | 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. |