| MUMBAI:
UK media regulator Ofcom has pulled up Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC)
Zee TV for crediting a sponsorship message during the telecast of its music reality
show Saregamapa L’il Champs. The
show was sponsored by East End Foods and Ofcom took offence of on-screen caption
that was displayed when contestants performed on stage. Ofcom
also objected to a presenter verbally referring to the programme sponsor when
welcoming the audience back to the show after a commercial break on 17 July. Ofcom
found that the show was in breach of Rule 9.12 of the Code, which states that
sponsorship credits must be clearly separated from programmes by temporal or spatial
means. Ofcom
said that a viewer complained about the inclusion of commercial messages within
the programme and sent the notice to Zee TV. In
its response, Zee TV accepted that the references “did not comply with the
Code and apologised for the error”.
Zee TV explained that the programme was produced and originally transmitted live
in India. Unlike many of the channel’s other programmes, the show was broadcast
in the UK very quickly after the original live transmission in India. Zee TV said
that this speed of turnaround may have “caught the staff out.”
Zee TV also
said that it had taken steps to ensure that the necessary masking and editing
of the remainder of the programmes in the series and any other such series is
done. | 
