BBC orders production company to pay compensation after misleading viewers

The BBC has today ordered a TV production company to pay compensation over three daytime series, including one fronted by Angela Rippon, that "routinely misled" viewers.

Reef Television has been found guilty by the BBC Trust of "serious and repeated breaches" of editorial guidelines in three daytime series – Sun, Sea and Bargain Spotting, presented by Rippon, Trash to Cash, and Dealers: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

Viewers were misled during the programmes, the trust ruled, by production staff appearing on screen posing as members of the public to buy items featured in the shows, buying items off screen that affected the result of the on-screen challenge, and restaging events where the genuine participants did not appear.

The company has also been told by the BBC Trust to offer an apology and reimbursement to competitors in the three shows who should have won challenges but did not. The BBC will also broadcast an on-air apology.

One edition of the BBC2 auction programme Sun, Sea and Bargain Spotting, featured a cameraman, Craig Harman, posing as a member of the public to buy an acrylic panel from a contestant, who was selling bargains on a London market stall.

The BBC Trust ruled that the three series breached editorial guidelines on misleading audiences and staging and re-staging events and banned them from being broadcast again.

BBC management has been asked by the trust to agree a sum of compensation with Reef Television to cover the cost to the licence-fee-payer of losing these shows before the independent producer can make programmes for the BBC again.

The trust concluded that BBC executive producers were unaware of the misleading practices on the Reef shows. But BBC management has been told to ensure new compliance measures are in place at the company before it can resume making shows for the corporation.

Reef Television management was unaware of the restaging of events, but assumed staff purchases were acceptable, the BBC Trust found.

Richard Tait, the chair of the BBC Trust's editorial standards committee, said Reef Television's practices had been "totally unacceptable". "The trust takes these breaches extremely seriously: we know they directly undermine the public's trust in the BBC," he added.

"The BBC must not allow its audiences to be misled. It must put steps in place to prevent this and, if misleading material is uncovered, it must be dealt with openly and firmly," Tait said.

The BBC suspended Reef Television without income three months ago when the story was first revealed in a newspaper report.

BBC management said today that it had been working with Reef during the company's suspension to "overhaul completely its compliance processes and editorial standards training".

"Following a rigorous and thorough process, the BBC is now satisfied that the company has compliance procedures and training of an appropriate standard. The BBC has, therefore, decided to lift its suspension," the BBC added.

"Reef Television will now resume work on two existing BBC projects and be free to pitch new work to the BBC in future. The BBC will review Reef Television's editorial standards performance in six months' time."

In August a statement from Reef Television, released by the BBC, said: "Reef Television wishes to apologise unreservedly for misleading Sun, Sea & Bargain Spotting viewers and the BBC.

"The company recognises it is a serious breach of editorial standards of which the BBC was not made aware. Reef Television will co-operate fully with the BBC's investigation and has launched its own inquiry."

This affair comes as a particular embarrassment to the BBC, which tightened up its compliance procedures after a string of viewer and listener deception scandals in 2007 – and again after the Ross/Brand row in late 2008. The BBC was fined more than £500,000 in 2007 and 2008 by Ofcom over a series of TV and radio phone-in deceptions.

The BBC instigated a major overhaul of programme-making methods after shows including Children in Need, Blue Peter and Comic Relief featured phone-ins where production staff pretended to be winners.

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