GMTV was wrong to allow consumer expert Martin Lewis to promote his commercial website on Lorraine Kelly’s show, broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has ruled. In its March bulletin, Ofcom said GMTV had breached its broadcasting code by re-directing viewers to Lewis’s website from the morning show’s own web page. The ruling referred to a segment on […]
GMTV was wrong to allow consumer expert Martin Lewis to promote his commercial website on Lorraine Kelly’s show, broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has ruled.
In its March bulletin, Ofcom said GMTV had breached its broadcasting code by re-directing viewers to Lewis’s website from the morning show’s own web page. The ruling referred to a segment on January 14 in which Martin Lewis claimed that free gym passes were available on his site.
23/03/2010
Lorraine Kelly’s section of the GMTV site allegedly directed users to Lewis’s Money Saving Expert page.
Ofcom ruled: “By inviting viewers to obtain further information and vouchers on the GMTV website, and then re-directing them to Martin Lewis’s commercial website to obtain that information, the programme was effectively promoting his business.”
It therefore found GMTV in breach of Rule 10.3 of its broadcasting code, which “prohibits the promotion of products and services, unless they meet the Code’s definition of programme-related material”.
However, a GMTV spokesperson insisted that suggestions that the item had intended to plug Lewis’s product are “inaccurate and disingenuous”.
