ASA sides with BT over Sky advert

Published Thursday, Sep 10 2009, 12:42 BST | By Andrew Laughlin

The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled in favour of BT over "misleading" Sky adverts promoting potential savings available when switching landline and broadband services.

The Sky ad in question depicted a conversation between two men in which it was claimed that customers switching calls and broadband packages from BT to Sky could save £185 a year.

In the small print, Sky identified that its calculation was based on a comparison between BT Option 2 & Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan against Sky Broadband & Sky Talk.

In response, BT complained that the ad was misleading as it failed to mention certain key factors in BT's Total Broadband Option 2 package that would be lost when switching to Sky, such as a "superior" 802.11n router.

BT also said that Sky only offers free security services for the first 12 months of a customer's contract, compared to BT's provision of such support for the whole duration of the contract.

Despite the telecoms giant claiming that the ads did not include Sky's £30 connection fee, the ASA upheld Sky's argument that the cost had been factored into the calculations.

The ASA also ruled that the router technology offered by BT "was unlikely to be materially significant to many consumers considering a switch".

However, it did support BT's provision of security software as being an important benefit for customers which should have been factored into Sky's calculations.

"We considered that the loss of the security package after 12 months was a significant factor likely to influence consumers' understanding of the offer, both in terms of the quality of the package and the value of the saving available to them after 12 months," said the ASA.

Taking all this into account, the ASA upheld BT's complaint and ruled that Sky should not run the advert again in its current form.

The decision marks another advertising blow for Sky after the ASA recently banned ads for the Sky+ HD service over misleading installation costs and availability for the Ashes tournament .