Ofcom has fined Five for breaches of the Broadcasting Code in the transmission of the quiz programme, Brainteaser on Five. This is the largest financial penalty imposed on a public service broadcaster by Ofcom.

^{Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV 26th June 2007 at 13:50}

Ofcom has started cracking down on fake TV quizzes today by handed out the biggest fine ever for a public service broadcaster, 300,000 for failures on the Brainteaser programme.

Five will also have to twice broadcast the adjudication on air. Five is in breach of Rule 2.11 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code (Competitions should be conducted fairly) for faking winners and misleading its audience on five separate occasions during 2007, and also 11 further similar or identical instances of unfair competitions (including the spin-off Memory Bank).

Ofcom boss Ed Richards said We take these issues extremely seriously and will not hesitate to protect viewers interests. Every broadcaster needs to take very careful note of this decision.

Ofcom is inestigating many cases of other programmes that may be in breach (including Bingo channel Avago) which will report this summer. In addition, Richard Ayre's inquiry into premium rate phone calls and TV programmes will report this summer.

The full Adjudication is available at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/obb/ocsc_adjud/channel5.pdf

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