Each of ITV's 11 regional licenses in England and Wales were fined £20,000 - totalling £220,000 - and Scottish broadcaster STV was fined £10,000 - £5,00 each for its two Channel 3 licenses - for not allocating 50% of spend on programme production outside the M25.

Two other independent ITV companies, Ulster's UTV and Channel TV were each fined £5,000 for the same offence.

Ofcom's current out-of-London quota applies to both the volume of programming and the ammount spent outside the capital.

While the regulator said ITV met the 50% volume quota in 2006 and 2007, it failed in both years to spend enough on regionally-sourced productions. The proportion of spend outside London was 45.6% in 2006 and 44.3% in 2007, falling short of the 50% requirement.