Ofcom’s Content Sanctions Committee has fined Life TV £125,000 for a series of breaches of its Broadcasting Code covering editorial independence and product placement.
The offending programme, Britain’s Best Breaks, has been on air since 2003 and has already been the subject of a number of sanctions by the regulator. During the course of the investigation into the programme, Ofcom discovered that organisations and businesses had paid to appear in the programme, and that the website of the programme’s producer Richland Media and Communications gave details of an ‘advertising opportunity’ that gave clear references to appearances in the programme.
The broadcaster said it had no knowledge of any payments being taken and is terminating its relationship with the production company.
Life TV is carried on Sky Digital and has the relatively high number of 139 on the EPG.