Phone-in scandal: BBC failed to pay thousands to charities

THE BBC failed to pay £106,000 to charity from phone votes in over 20 programmes, including last year's UK Eurovision final, it said today.

In the case of Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2007, a presenter mistakenly told viewers to vote when phone lines had not yet opened.

The other programmes, which have not been named, relate to Audiocall, part of BBC Worldwide, retaining all money raised from premium rate calls made by the audience who were mistakenly voting despite lines being closed.

For the first time, the BBC Trust has instructed the Corporation to apologise on air for breach of trust.

It has also asked the director general to consider disciplinary action against a small number of BBC Worldwide staff.

The BBC said the sums that should have been paid to charity have now been repaid with interest.

The problems, published in a report commissioned by the BBC, occurred between October 2005 and September last year.

BBC chairman Sir Michael Lyons blamed "unacceptable behaviour from a small number of staff".

He said that while a "clear editorial failure" led to the problem with Eurovision, where the phone lines were also being handled by Audiocall, in the other cases "the problems were entirely with Audiocall".

Sir Michael said the BBC Trust was "shocked to find another problem".
It follows the spate of scandals that have engulfed the BBC and the rest of the broadcasting industry.

In BBC1 show Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up, viewers voted for a British act to represent the UK.

Reforming pop quartet Scooch were the surprise winners of the UK heat.
But the BBC said that if the votes that came in before lines opened had been counted, the result would have remained the same.

Sir Michael said he was "confident" that they had uncovered the "full scale of the problem".

He said around "two dozen" programmes were affected, admitting the number was "quite a lot".

Sir Michael said it was "unlikely" that there were other cases that had not yet come to light.

What occurred was a "serious failing" but the BBC's problems with premium rate phone voting were "nowhere near the scale" of ITV's, he added.

He said it was "not entirely clear" why staff had not flagged up what was occurring, but said: "We're clear from this exhaustive exercise that there was no criminal intent".

He added: "BBC Worldwide is expected to behave to the same ethical standards as the BBC at large".

The problem stopped when new technology was introduced to stop people voting when lines closed.

The Trust has asked the Director General to contact other broadcasters who used Audiocall's services in case they experienced problems.
The BBC has now passed £123,000 to charity.

The latest revelations follow the record £5.67 million fine imposed on ITV yesterday by Ofcom over the broadcaster's phone-in scandal.