ASA Adjudication on British Sky Broadcasting Ltd

Ad

Various press ads for Sky High Definition TV that included claims such as "High Definition is the biggest revolution in television viewing since colour superseded black and white. Just imagine the difference four times more detail, depth and vibrant colour will make to your TV experience"; "Feel every touch of every ball with all your favourite live sport from football to cricket"; "You won’t see the difference that four times more detail, depth and vibrant colour will make to your TV experience until you feel it for yourself with Sky HD"; "Sky HD feel everything" and "CELEBRATE THE NATIONAL GAME BECOMING MORE BEAUTIFUL".

Issue

The complainant objected that the ads did not make clear how limited the High Definition (HD) service currently was, because he believed, of the seven HD channels shown, most broadcast very limited HD output.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

British Sky Broadcasting Ltd (BSkyB) said 100% of the content on its HD channels was broadcast in HD. They explained that there were two types of HD content: content that had originated in HD and other content that was up-converted to, and broadcast in, HD. They provided broadcast information on 11 HD channels, including programming content, hours of total HD content and percentage of programmes originating in HD. They pointed out that it showed a wide range of programming originating in HD and said the amount of content originating in HD had risen from an average of 86 hours a day during the first 15 weeks after the Sky HD service launched to an average of 126 hours a day during November and December 2006. BSkyB pointed out that Sky HD now showed more programmes originating in HD every month than the five terrestrial television channels showed standard definition (SD) content in any month. They pointed out that they only promoted programmes originating in HD in their HD marketing and said Sky HD had more content originating in HD than any other HD service in the UK.

BSkyB provided an independent expert's opinion, which stated that an HD service comprising of a mixture of content originating in HD and content up-converted to, and broadcast in, HD represented the best viewing experience for consumers. This was because broadcasters had vast libraries of archive material that could not be shown if the channel carried only material that originated in HD.

BSkyB asserted that during the period to which the complaint related from 23 May until 4 September 2006, 74% of Sky HD's content originated in HD (when the content of the pay-per-view channel Sky Box Office was taken into account) and the rest was up-converted to, and broadcast in, HD.

The complainant said he had performed a survey on the HD content of his Sky HD service in September and had found that, at any one time, less than 50% of the programmes originated in HD.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted the ad promoted Sky HD's subscription service and considered that only channels that were part of the Sky basic subscription, not pay-for-view channels such as Sky Box Office, should be included in the analysis of Sky's HD service. We noted the basic service was the basis for the complaint. We acknowledged that the Sky HD service had comprised seven channels at the time this complaint was made, but that new HD channels had since been added to the service.

We took independent expert advice and understood that there was a leap in quality, clearly discernable by the viewer, between content which originated in HD and other content up-converted to, and broadcast in, HD. We understood that, for the viewer, content originating in HD would represent a new visual experience when compared with standard definition (SD) TV, and that while content up-converted to, and broadcast in, HD was of better quality than SD content, it could not match the quality of content originating in HD. The expert analysed Sky's first 15 weeks of service and concluded there was a large rise in content up-converted to, and broadcast in, HD, but only a modest increase in the amount of content originating in HD over this period. The expert explained that there was a wide variation between channels but that an average of 65.4% of programme hours, over this time, originated in HD.

We acknowledged that 100% of the programmes on the Discovery Channel HD, both Sky Movies HD channels and the National Geographic HD originated in HD and that all the programmes promoted as HD in the ads, such as The Ryder Cup and the Barclay's Premiership football, originated in HD. However, we also noted the complainant believed he had been misled by the ad because, when he agreed to pay for the service, he had expected it to provide 100% programme content originating in HD.

We acknowledged that the complainant believed the service was limited and that he had been disappointed by the number of programmes originating in HD across the service, and in particular on Sky Sports 1 and 2. We nevertheless considered that, as a new service, consumers would understand that it was unrealistic to expect all of Skys HD broadcast to originate in HD because it was a new technology and that, if it did, it would exclude a large catalogue of programmes filmed using a standard camera. We considered that the HD service was not limited on the basis of its content originating in HD and concluded that the ads were unlikely to mislead.

We investigated the ads under CAP Code clause 7.1 (Truthfulness) and clause 3.1 (Substantiation), but did not find them in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)