ITVtakes £18m phone-in charge after probe

ITV, Britain's biggest commercial broadcaster, said it would incur a one-off operating charge of £18 million relating to shortcomings in its premium-rate interactive services.

ITV, home to hit shows X Factor and Coronation Street, said a review by auditors Deloitte found key failures in its handling of such activities over the past two years.

"Sorting out this mess has been painful and costly," ITV Executive Chairman Michael Grade told reporters in a conference call, adding that the company deeply regretted how trust between viewers and the company had been broken.

More than 60 ITV series were probed and Deloitte found serious editorial issues in three programmes, Soapstar Superstar, Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and Ant and Dec's Gameshow Marathon. ITV's British Comedy Awards 2005 is the subject of a separate ongoing probe by media law firm Olswang.

No staff are losing their jobs following the review. ITV suspended its premium rate interactive services across its channels on March 5, when it appointed Deloitte for an investigation that goes back to April, 2005. Some third-party businesses working with ITV did not take part in the process.

"Wherever there were grounds for suspicion we have together (with Deloitte) investigated those ... in certain cases we rest on the assurances we have been given by those independent producers," said Mr Grade.

ITV said the £18 million-exceptional charge would be taken this financial year and include a £5 million pre-exceptional charge taken at the half-year stage.

The headline figure, which is before any potential fine by media regulator Ofcom, comes from £7.8 million worth of reimbursements, costs relating to the inquiry and charges relating to GMTV, a breakfast TV programme largely owned by ITV.

ITV said it was suspending all SMS text and "red button" interactive voting on its live programmes. It has also decided to take control of all telephony services on programmes made by ITV Productions rather than let third-party companies handle them.

"These failings were not venal," said Mr Grade, who joined the company last November.

"In all cases individuals were motivated by their professional instinct to produce the best show, but they failed to understand that this could come at the expense of keeping faith with participating viewers," he added.

There has been a run of cases in Britain this year involving viewer deception, prompting an inquiry by media regulator Ofcom that found TV programmes and quizzes using premium rate telephone numbers had frequently misled viewers.

Earlier this month, Peter Fincham, the head of the BBC's flagship BBC One television channel, resigned after a report by the British public service broadcaster faulted him for wrongly implying Queen Elizabeth had stormed out of a photo shoot.