MUMBAI: UK media watchdog Ofcom has imposed a financial penalty of ?40,000 on E! Entertainment UK.

This penalty follows Ofcom?s finding, published on 23 April 2012 in Broadcast Bulletin 204 relating to the broadcast of consecutive episodes of Girls of the Playboy Mansion at various times during the day on 27 December 2011.

The content of these episodes included material which was unsuitable for pre-watershed broadcast and the episodes were broadcast during the Christmas holiday period, when it was likely that children ? some unaccompanied by an adult - would have been watching. The broadcaster was found in breach of Rule 1.3:

According to Rule 1.3, children must also be protected by appropriate scheduling from material that is unsuitable for them.

Before the broadcast on 27 December 2011 of Girls of the Playboy Mansion, which was subject to this sanction, E! had also previously been found in breach for two programmes, which were also unsuitable for broadcast before the watershed because the nature of the content and because the most offensive language was broadcast (Broadcast Bulletin 195).

Ofcom decided that the Code breach of Rule 1.3 recorded in Broadcast Bulletin 204 was serious and repeated and, therefore, a financial penalty should be imposed.