Ofcom has received over 150 individual complaints from members of the public in relation to last Friday’s Red Nose Day broadcast.
A spokesman for Ofcom told Civil Society News that the UK communications regulator has received 151 individual complaints from members of the public about the Red Nose Day broadcast, since it was televised last week.
The vast majority of complaints were made about the programme which aired on Friday, 24 of March and “mostly relate to the content” of the broadcast and not technical issues.
“We have received 151 complaints about Comic Relief 2017 on the BBC,” said the spokesman. “We will assess these complaints before deciding whether or not to investigate.”
A number of incidents on the broadcast elicited complaints, including the use of bad language pre-watershed; a game of ‘innuendo bingo’, and a sketch by comedic duo Reeves and Mortimer with ITV presenter Susanna Reid.
A spokesman for the BBC, said: "The Red Nose Day 2017 broadcast was a live studio environment enjoyed by a peak audience of 7.6 million which raised over £73m.
"This will go a huge way to help improve the lives of many people both here in the UK and in some of the world's poorest countries."
In Fundraising Magazine
The BBC declined to say how many people, if any, had complained directly to the BBC.
Ofcom ‘would mostly likely offer guidance’ to BBC, if investigation finds breach
The Ofcom spokesman said, if an investigation was to go ahead, it would likely take “50 working days” to complete.
He also said that, should a breach be found in any hypothetical investigation, the regulator “would most likely offer guidance to the broadcaster” for a standard breach of the Broadcasting Code, as opposed to a fine.
“Sanctions and fines are only for very serious rule breaches,” said the Ofcom spokesman.
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