E! Entertainment channel has been fined £40,000 by Ofcom for broadcasting unsuitable episodes of its show ‘Girls of the Playboy Mansion’ at times when children would likely be watching.
The fine comes as the broadcaster has previously broken UK broadcasting code by airing two other programmes which were deemed to be unsuitable pre-watershed due to their use of “the most offensive language”.
The case refers to episodes of the show, which follows the lives of ‘Playboy Bunnies’ living in the Playboy mansion, which were shown consecutively on 27 December 2011.
Ofcom ruled that during the Christmas holiday period children were more likely to be watching television making the decision to broadcast these episodes a breach of rule 1.3 of the broadcasting code – “Children must also be protected by appropriate scheduling from material that is unsuitable for them.”
The financial penalty is now payable to HM Paymaster General.