STV rapped over 18 sponsored shows

Ofcom has ruled that 18 programmes aired by Scottish ITV licensee STV broke sponsorship rules, in an extensive investigation kicked off by press articles that accused the broadcaster of airing programmes that had been influenced by the Scottish government. The media regulator launched an investigation into 57 programmes sponsored by the Scottish government, agencies and non-departmental public bodies broadcast on STV in 2008 and 2009, following allegations made by the Scottish Sunday Express that the government had influenced the content of shows. The article, published by the Express on 28 February and followed up by the Times, named three series in particular as having been influenced: Made in Scotland, Scotland Revealed and The Greatest Scot, which were known as the Homecoming programmes. Ofcom cleared the three shows of any breach of the broadcast code but found that 18 other programmes were in breach of broadcasting rules relating to sponsorship. The majority of the 18 programmes that were found to breach Ofcom's rules were about one minute in duration and were on public information-style subjects. Rules on sponsorship state that "a sponsor must not influence the content and/or scheduling of a channel or programme in such a way as to impair the responsibility and editorial independence of the broadcaster". "In the circumstances of these 18 programmes, Ofcom considered that STV had sought programme funding to create programmes that were effectively vehicles for the purpose of promoting the sponsor's interests," said Ofcom. "In effect, in some cases, the programming appeared akin to an advertisement for the sponsor or its activities. Given the inherent inability of such programmes to comply with the code's approach to sponsorship, Ofcom concluded that in these cases, STV's responsibility and editorial independence had been impaired by the sponsorship arrangements." Ofcom said that the majority of the sponsorship code breaches "resulted from the editorial content being too closely linked to the sponsor". "In the case of all the programmes that were found in breach of the code, STV had sought programme funding to create editorial content that conveyed a positive message about the sponsor or its activities, or to portray it in a favourable light," said Ofcom in its ruling. "It appeared to Ofcom that STV had permitted the sponsorship of the programmes to influence the content so that it was too closely linked to the sponsors or their activities." Ofcom pointed out that "With regard to any other STV programming, such as news, current affairs and its coverage of Scottish politics, Ofcom found that there was no evidence or implication that the Scottish government had influenced the content in such a way as to impair STV's responsibility and editorial independence." In its defence STV pointed out that Ofcom had cleared all full programming of political interference, and more than 15 hours' worth was investigated by the media regulator, with just 18 minutes of 60-second "programme inserts" from 2008 were found to be in breach of the broadcasting code. "We are pleased that Ofcom has refuted any suggestion of political interference in our programme schedule," said STV. "As STV has asserted, Ofcom's findings now confirm that allegations made in a Sunday newspaper, suggesting that the Scottish government influenced STV's programming, are completely unfounded and inaccurate". STV said that the ruling "draws a line under these false accusations of any wrongdoing" and noted that it had not received a single viewer complaint about any of the 57 programmes investigated. "We note the regulator's findings of some technical breaches unrelated to the claims of political interference in a minority of short form, one minute programme inserts dating from 2008," the company said. "Of the 906 minutes (over 15 hours) of material, broadcast over a two-year period, under investigation by Ofcom, just 18 minutes of short-form social action programme inserts raised concerns. This was completely unrelated to any unfounded suggestion of political interference". The broadcaster said that it has aired more than 500 one-minute "programme inserts" since 2003 and has "robust compliance arrangements in place, and a long and successful track record of delivering award winning sponsored and social action programming". • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".