Sky has been ordered to discontinue a direct mail advertisement after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled it had mislead consumers over the broadband and TV services supplied by competitor Virgin Media.
The ad suggested that Virgin’s traffic management policy meant customers with “super-duper fast broadband” are subject to speed reductions if they exceed their data threshold.
However, the ASA argued Sky had deliberately exaggerated the implications of the policy, noting that it does not restrict Virgin’s 60Mbps and 100Mbps subscribers to data transfer rates below 30Mbps – the speed at which the service is described as “superfast”.
The ASA also ruled that the ad gave an “overly negative portrayal” of the competing provider.
“We considered the ad was presented in a manner that went beyond a robust and objective comparison of the services offered by Sky and Virgin Media, and denigrated Virgin Media’s brand,” it concluded.
The ASA chose not to uphold two further complaints regarding Sky’s portrayal of Virgin’s high-definition and 3D TV offerings, concluding it was only implied that not all of the latter’s channels are available in HD and that it does not have a dedicated channel for 3D programming – both of which are true.