TV channel fined for showing `nude` Playboy show at 10am during Christmas holidays

London: A digital channel that screened back-to-back episodes of a Playboy show –featuring nude models - from 10am during the Christmas school holidays last year, has been handed a 40,000-pound-fine by a UK government watchdog.

TV regulator Ofcom found that E! Entertainment violated the broadcasting code by screening the editions of ‘Girls of the Playboy Mansion’ pre- watershed when kids could be watching TV. Ofcom imposed a financial penalty on the station as a result of the screenings on December 27 last year. The regulator decided the episodes included material that was “unsuitable for pre-watershed broadcast” The shows were screened in batches from 10am to 1pm and then from 4pm until the watershed of 9pm. The broadcaster said that the programmes were cleared for “compliance” with the code by a team based in Los Angeles, but it had since transferred the responsibility to representatives in the UK. It accepted that it was a “very serious” and “extremely regrettable” breach for which it has apologised. ANI