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TV talent show The X Factor breached broadcasting rules, Ofcom has ruled, by giving undue prominence to the London hotel where finalists stayed.
In the past the show's finalists have shared a house for the last stage of the competition, but this year they were put up at the Corinthia Hotel, overlooking the Thames in central London.
When the first live programme of the last series was broadcast on October 6 last year, eight of the 13 finalists were shown either arriving or making themselves comfortable at the hotel.
ITV was not paid money to plug the hotel as part of a product placement deal, but its producers did sign a contract with the hotel to get a reduced rate for its rooms and services.
The broadcasting regulator said the contract "did not guarantee the inclusion of any references to the hotel in any of the episodes of The X Factor."
In response ITV claimed that the on-screen references were a means of giving viewers an impression of the finalists' changed circumstances and how they were "settling into their new lifestyles as performers and television celebrities."
The television company said that the references to the hotel were "part of the conventional visual grammer of television storytelling" and were "editorially justified in reflecting where and how the contestants will now be living in the following weeks of the competition."
But ITV did say that having reviewed the episode after it was aired it had agreed with the producers that there would not be the same editorial justifiction for such references in succeeding episodes.
In its ruling on Monday Ofcom said that it acknowledged it was "common practice to show an establishing shot of a location to indicate to the audience where the programme's action is taking place."
X Factor judge Tulisa outside the Corinthia Hotel
But it said that while each of the references to the hotel by themselves did not break any rules, the regulator said the overall number of mentions was 'excessive'.
The regulator pointed to three of the eight on-screen appearances as particular causes for concern, including an exchange between James Arthur and Rylan Clark, which included: "It's absolutely amazing here... I've never really seen anything like it to be honest. It's a million miles away from the place I live back home... Oh my God James, it's massive! There's a phone in the toilet!"
The number of external shots of the hotel was also deemed to be editorially unjustifiable by Ofcom, given the number of other visual and verbal references.
The programme gave 'undue prominence to the hotel' and breached rule 9.5 of the broadcasting code, Ofcom ruled.
"In isolation, each reference to the Corinthia hotel did not raise issues of undue prominence, in the context of establishing where the contestants would be living during the final stages of the competition, and conveying their excitement at their new surroundings," Ofcom said.
"However, Ofcom considered the overall number of references to be excessive for the purpose of establishing this.
"We therefore judged that there was insufficient editorial justification for the repeated references to the hotel during the programme."
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