The Stage

BBC sets up department to manage live show audience interactivity

Published Tuesday 7 October 2008 at 12:30 by Matthew Hemley

The interactive elements of BBC shows such as Strictly Come Dancing are to be managed by a newly-formed department.

The Corporation is setting up the department to prevent a repeat of the editorial breaches that saw it hit with a record £400,000 fine last year.

Through the Interactive Technical Advice and Contracts Unit (ITACU), the BBC said it hoped to “ensure that audiences receive the best service possible when taking part in BBC programmes”.

It comes after Ofcom’s £400,000 fine last year for breaches in television and radio programmes broadcast between 2005 and 2007. Many of these breaches involved interactive votes, competitions and the use of premium rate telephone calls.

The ITACU forms part of the BBC’s plan to address the issues which arose from those breaches. The unit will support the work of the BBC’s television and radio production teams, enabling the reintroduction of participation services while being compliant with industry regulations.

It will oversee the technical and contractual arrangements for telephony for programmes across the BBC and it will be mandatory for all programme makers to use the department, which will be the only part of the BBC permitted to engage with a third party telephone service provider.

David Jordan, director of editorial policy and standards, who has helped set the unit up, said: “This new unit should be a huge help to BBC production teams who want to exploit the creative possibilities of interactivity in their output.”