Sky hit with seventh advert ban in four years - in a war with rivals over 'misleading' public promotions

At issue in the TV advert, which was aired during September 2020, was the pricing of their Superfast Broadband and Sky TV bundle, which at the time was being offered at a discounted rate of £39 per month for the first 18 months of service.

This was compared with the "usual"  £52 – which would be the combined cost of the two if purchased separately.

BT complained that the ad should be considered “misleading” because they believed that the price of Sky TV and Broadband was already less than £52 when bought together.

The Advertising Standards Authority agreed with BT’s claim that the price of £39 did not represent a genuine saving, since it was already available for customers buying TV and broadband together.

It ruled that the spot breached the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice code rules on misleading advertising, substantiation, qualification and prices.

READ MORE: 'Unwelcome': Sky raises prices for millions of customers by up to £72 a year for second time in six months

"We considered the savings claim did not represent a genuine saving against a usual selling price, we concluded that it was likely to mislead and breached the Code," the ASA said.

Sky was told not to run the advert in its current form again - although it is not expected to have any impact as the campaign finished last year - and to “ensure that future savings claims represented a genuine saving against a usual selling price.”

It is the latest in a series of complaints brought by communications giants BT, Sky, Virgin Media and other rivals against each other.

The censure is the third Sky has suffered since last May, when it got into trouble over claiming it had "the UK’s lowest price superfast broadband with WiFi Guarantee or money back”.

The ASA has investigated a further three complaints against Sky since 2017 that it has not upheld.

In August, the ASA said adverts appearing on Sky's own website and on TV did not make it clear existing customers would have to pay more for set-up.

While the ad said customers would pay £20 for set-up, the fee for existing customers was up to £219.

Sky argued this was made clear in the text supporting the advert but the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) rejected the claim and warned the communications firm not to repeat the ads in their current form.

Sky was further hit with ad bans in March 2019, after complaints from Virgin and BT, March 2018 (BT), October 2017 (the public) and July 2017 (Virgin Media).

In 2017, they were rebuked for presenting terms and conditions text onscreen against a light background, making it difficult for viewers to read.

It was judged by ASA to be misleading, but the limitations of ASA's remit means that they can only retrospectively ban ads - and they don't have the power to fine companies either.

BT received a ban in March 2020 after claiming "only we guarantee Wi-Fi in every room" through its mesh system adding "we guarantee a strong signal in every room". This came after complaints from Virgin, Vodafone and the public.

BT said that they had “carried out extensive coverage testing prior to launch on a trial base of over 1000 homes” to support their claims.

But the ASA disagreed and banned the BT ads and told them “not to claim that they guaranteed Wi-Fi in every room unless they held adequate evidence to support the claims.” It said the claim “only we guarantee wi-fi in every room” could not be substantiated, and was therefore misleading.

BT was hit with further ad bans by the ASA in February 2019 (Virgin) and June 2017 (Sky, Virgin, TalkTalk and others).

Three years ago the ASA said that it was enforcing a "new, tougher standard" on how broadband speed claims can be presented in ads - after a series of complaints.

The standard required that speed claims in broadband ads - across all media including online and social media - should be based on the download speed available to at least 50% of customers at peak time (8pm-10pm) and described in ads as “average”.

It said the standard will help consumers better understand what’s on offer when deciding to switch providers.

The previous regulations, which dated back to 2012, allowed speeds to be advertised as available to 10% of customers and may describe those as “up to”.

But in 2016, research commissioned on the ASA’s behalf showed many consumers were confused by the broadband speed claims made in adverts, with many expecting to receive a service capable of delivering speeds close to what was claimed when this was very rarely the case. This was due to a multitude of factors – such as the distance between a house and the nearest cabinet in the case of fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) services running on the Openreach network.

A spokesperson for Sky told said: “We appreciate the importance of keeping our customers informed, connected and entertained. 

“We know price increases are never welcome and we try to keep prices down whilst still delivering the content our customers love, the flexibility to choose the package that suits them and with leading customer service.”