media guardian article 3
'Upset' Ant and Dec give profits to charity after phone-in scandalJames Robinson, media correspondentSunday October 21, 2007The Observer
ITV stars Ant and Dec last night made an unprecedented apology over rigged phone-in votes in a competition on their programme, and announced that they would donate profits from their next series of Saturday Night Takeaway to charity.
In a statement, Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly said: 'It is important to us that people understand that none of the shows highlighted in the findings of ITV's independent review were made by our production company, Gallowgate, and that there was no financial benefit to us from the phone lines within those shows.
'Our roles as executive producers are purely creative ones. We are not involved in running the phone lines, the logistics of the competitions or selecting winners.
'We are deeply upset about what the review uncovered. However, we welcome the full disclosure of these problems, not least because we can be sure that our viewers have the opportunity to get their money back.'
They had spoken to ITV chairman Michael Grade about the review's findings and were confident that ITV would not allow the problems to be repeated.
Grade is under increasing pressure this weekend to force the resignations of those involved in the systematic rigging of phone-in programmes. He said he would have resigned if he had been chief executive of ITV when the rigging took place. But, unlike Peter Fincham, who resigned as Controller of BBC1 after a row over a documentary about the Queen, no one at ITV has left.
The Observer can reveal that the heads of Britain's biggest broadcasters met last month to discuss the crisis. BBC director-general Mark Thompson, Grade, Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan and Jane Lighting, his opposite number at Five, met at Broadcasting House on 26 September.
The summit was called to discuss how to restore public trust in broadcasting and hammer out a set of best practices. Sources say they could lead to the introduction of an industry-wide code of conduct.
Last week, an independent report by auditor Deloitte found that several ITV shows, including The X Factor, failed to count viewers' votes cast after lines had closed. It also found that production staff at Saturday Night Takeaway, which was heavily criticised by Deloitte, routinely ignored poll results on editorial grounds. The company has promised to reimburse viewers and said the affair is likely to cost it £18m.
At last month's meeting, how to handle the fall-out from recent scandals was also raised. 'There was a feeling that the "drip, drip" of revelations was having a negative effect and we wanted to see if there was anything we could do to mitigate that,' said one source. He emphasised there was no attempt to co-ordinate last week's announcements. Grade reacted angrily to an allegation by Liberal Democrat spokesman Don Foster that the decision to publish Deloitte's report on Thursday, when the BBC revealed 2,500 job losses, was an 'attempt to bury bad news'.
News of the meeting comes as the Serious Fraud Office confirmed it had asked industry regulator Ofcom to hand over documents relating to its investigation into GMTV, the breakfast TV franchisee, after receiving complaints from the public.
GMTV, which is 75 per cent owned by ITV, was fined a record £2m by Ofcom this year after admitting that millions of viewers taking part in phone-in competitions entered after lines had closed.
ITV stars Ant and Dec last night made an unprecedented apology over rigged phone-in votes in a competition on their programme, and announced that they would donate profits from their next series of Saturday Night Takeaway to charity.
In a statement, Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly said: 'It is important to us that people understand that none of the shows highlighted in the findings of ITV's independent review were made by our production company, Gallowgate, and that there was no financial benefit to us from the phone lines within those shows.
'Our roles as executive producers are purely creative ones. We are not involved in running the phone lines, the logistics of the competitions or selecting winners.
'We are deeply upset about what the review uncovered. However, we welcome the full disclosure of these problems, not least because we can be sure that our viewers have the opportunity to get their money back.'
They had spoken to ITV chairman Michael Grade about the review's findings and were confident that ITV would not allow the problems to be repeated.
Grade is under increasing pressure this weekend to force the resignations of those involved in the systematic rigging of phone-in programmes. He said he would have resigned if he had been chief executive of ITV when the rigging took place. But, unlike Peter Fincham, who resigned as Controller of BBC1 after a row over a documentary about the Queen, no one at ITV has left.
The Observer can reveal that the heads of Britain's biggest broadcasters met last month to discuss the crisis. BBC director-general Mark Thompson, Grade, Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan and Jane Lighting, his opposite number at Five, met at Broadcasting House on 26 September.
The summit was called to discuss how to restore public trust in broadcasting and hammer out a set of best practices. Sources say they could lead to the introduction of an industry-wide code of conduct.
Last week, an independent report by auditor Deloitte found that several ITV shows, including The X Factor, failed to count viewers' votes cast after lines had closed. It also found that production staff at Saturday Night Takeaway, which was heavily criticised by Deloitte, routinely ignored poll results on editorial grounds. The company has promised to reimburse viewers and said the affair is likely to cost it £18m.
At last month's meeting, how to handle the fall-out from recent scandals was also raised. 'There was a feeling that the "drip, drip" of revelations was having a negative effect and we wanted to see if there was anything we could do to mitigate that,' said one source. He emphasised there was no attempt to co-ordinate last week's announcements. Grade reacted angrily to an allegation by Liberal Democrat spokesman Don Foster that the decision to publish Deloitte's report on Thursday, when the BBC revealed 2,500 job losses, was an 'attempt to bury bad news'.
News of the meeting comes as the Serious Fraud Office confirmed it had asked industry regulator Ofcom to hand over documents relating to its investigation into GMTV, the breakfast TV franchisee, after receiving complaints from the public.
GMTV, which is 75 per cent owned by ITV, was fined a record £2m by Ofcom this year after admitting that millions of viewers taking part in phone-in competitions entered after lines had closed.
i think it should go to charity because sooo many programmes are doing this, 'without knowing'. i think it is done by purpose and when they get sussed they say its an accident etc, of course they know whats going on behind everything. majority of phone ins should be going to charity anyway, its not as if ITV need that much money.
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