GMTV fined £2m by Ofcom

Just days after their ex-service provider Opera Telecom was slapped with a £250k fine by premium watchdog ICSTIS, the Government’s broadcast regulator Ofcom have handed out a £2m fine to GMTV for their part in the multi-million pound premium rate scam.

The Telegraph reports that Ofcom said today that GMTV’s “disregard” for its viewers for the duration of the scandal – lasting nearly three years – could not be described as “anything other than gross negligence”.

‘Over a period of nearly four years, GMTV made profits running into millions of pounds from its competitions, but had no adequate oversight of this operation,” it said.

‘This resulted in the widespread and systematic deception of millions of viewers who paid to enter the competitions in the belief that they had a fair chance of winning when in fact their chances were diminished or nonexistent.”

Ofcom also said hadn’t it been for GMTV’s immediate steps to rectify the problem, the fine would have been even higher.