Industry regulator Ofcom has fined Playboy TV UK/Benelux Ltd £22,500 for breaches of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code in respect of its Playboy One service, which broadcast as an unencrypted channel until September 2008. The channel was found to have breached three Broadcasting Code rules relating to ‘adult-sex’ material broadcast not under encryption, generally accepted standards and material which may cause offence.
Seven programmes broadcast between September 2007 and December 2007 were investigated and Ofcom concluded that – depending on the individual breach – the explicitness, strength and/or sustained nature of the sexual content and language was unacceptable for broadcast on an unencrypted free-to-air channel. The programmes should have been broadcast under encryption, and in line with the other requirements of Rule 1.24.
In addition the Licensee had failed to provide adequate protection for viewers from potentially harmful or offensive material as required by Rules 2.1 and 2.3.
The full Adjudication can be seen at www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/obb/ocsc_adjud/playboytv.pdf
