The Stage

BBC ordered to apologise for keeping charity cash

Published Friday 9 May 2008 at 15:40 by Matthew Hemley

The BBC has been ordered to make an on air apology, after it emerged £106,000 made from premium-rate phone calls that should have gone to charity was retained by the Corporation.

Findings of an investigation by Price Waterhouse Coopers were published by the BBC Trust today, which found that Audiocall - a trading division of BBC Worldwide that provides premium-rate phone lines to many of the Corporation’s shows - had kept all money raised from calls to a number of shows mistakenly made by audiences when voting lines had closed.

In light of this, the trust’s legal advisers carried out a further investigation which established the practice started in October 2005 and lasted until September 2007.

The trust said the amount raised by Audiocall that should have gone to charity was £106,000, around 1.3% of the total money raised for charity from premium rate services during that period, and added that the sum had been paid to charity with interest.

BBC director general Mark Thompson has been asked to look at disciplining a “handful of staff” and the BBC has been ordered to apologise on air to the charities and viewers.

In response, the BBC issued a statement that said: “This was a serious oversight in Audiocall which must never be allowed to happen again. Since September 2007, we have made use of a new technical solution that prevents callers being charged when they call in outside of the time when lines are officially open.”

Separately, the BBC has revealed that in the Eurovision song selection show, Making Your Mind Up 2007, a large volume of calls came in when lines were not open.

These calls generated £6,000, which has also gone to charity.