bbc - charity fraud scandal

The BBC today apologised for keeping £106,000 made from premium-rate phone calls on about two dozen shows that should have been given to charity.In the latest scandal to hit the television industry over phone-ins, the BBC also admitted that viewers of Making Your Mind Up, the BBC1 show that chose last year's UK entry for the Eurovision song contest, Scooch, were misled into voting before phone lines had opened. In that case, the BBC made £6,000 from ineligible calls. The BBC Trust has also ordered the BBC to make an onscreen apology - the first time the corporation's governance and regulatory body has imposed such a sanction. Lyons said the issue involved the BBC Worldwide subsidiary Audiocall, which provides premium-rate phone lines to many BBC shows. He added that about two dozen shows had been affected between October 2005 and September 2007, although he refused to name them.