Channel 4's director of television Kevin Lygo has criticised regulator Icstis for doing nothing for years over the premium rate phone lines scandals.
Mr Lygo, speaking at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival, said the regulator was currently in a "muddle" over the issue.
Channel 4's shows have been hit hard by fines from Icstis - which oversees premium rate phone lines - with a £150,000 fine over Richard & Judy's You Say We Pay quiz and a £30,000 penalty for Deal or No Deal.
"It looks like most of the phone competitions in TV had issues for several years and Icstis did nothing," Mr Lygo said. "I think we need to say, 'what were Icstis doing?' They are in a muddle."
Responding to Jeremy Paxman's MacTaggart speech yesterday, in which the Newsnight presenter said he had been told of issues with premium rate phone contests at the ITV Play channel a year ago, Mr Lygo added: "If Jeremy knew something about it a year before he should have said something about it."
In the same session, Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan admitted that few people had actually asked the broadcaster for refunds over premium rate phone calls made to its effected shows.
"Not many people have taken up the refund scheme but we will keep it open and refund people when ever they want," he said.
Mr Duncan also admitted that the broadcaster had made mistakes over the past year. "The necessity of making the case for new forms of public support for the channel... has forced us to talk so much about finances and perhaps not enough about [our] creative contribution," he said.
"My other regret is that the events of 2007 have obscured the full weight of our public service contribution. Many of [our] outstanding programmes... have gone un-noticed beneath the barrage of negative headlines."
