Sky Ad ‘Misleading’

A Sky ad which claimed that new customers get the same deals as existing ones has been found to be misleading by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The ad, headlined “Why do existing Virgin Media customers often pay more than new ones?” had smaller text beneath it which said “At Sky we think it’s wrong to advertise attractive sounding prices that are often only available to new customers, not loyal ones. We believe it’s right that all our customers should enjoy consistently low prices across all our products. To get the value and treatment you deserve as a customer, give us a call on 08702 423 907 or see how our products compare at www.sky.com/compare “.

There were five complaints that the ad was misleading, including one from a Sky customer who said that Sky had told her it would cost £159 to upgrade her package to Sky+, but that a new customer would pay £49.

Another complainant said that the offer of a free Sky+ box and free installation applied to new customers only.

Sky said that new and existing customers paid the same standard prices for their subscription services and digital satellite equipment. It said the ad promoted the message that their standard prices were available to both new and existing customers whereas Virgin Media’s standard prices were often lower for new customers than for existing ones.

Sky explained that standard prices should be seen as distinct from special offers it ran periodically for time limited periods. It said they did not include their special offers in the comparison claim made in the ad. However, it said it had included Virgin Media’s special offers in the comparison because it believed those offers were in fact standard prices.

Sky used Virgin Media’s special offers in its ad as it said that these prices were used as standard offers for new customers.

The ASA said: “Because existing Sky customers were not able to take part in some offers, we considered that that contradicted the claim, “we think it’s wrong to advertise attractive sounding prices that are often only available to new customers”.

“We were also concerned to note that, whilst Sky did not include their special offers in the comparison, they had included special offers made by Virgin Media to new customers, including some that were time limited. We considered that the claim ‘At Sky we think it’s wrong … ‘ would be understood by a reader to mean that Sky’s prices were always the same for new and existing customers, because they were not, we concluded that the ad was misleading.”

The ASA ruled that Sky should not run the ad again.

Sky: 08702 40 40 40 www.sky.com