Setanta Sports Ltd 4th Floor 8 Waterloo Place London SW1Y 4BE Number of complaints: 1

Date: 24 October 2007 Media: Magazine Sector: Leisure Agency: Big Al's Creative Emporium, Branded Ltd

Ad
A magazine ad, for Setanta Sports, in Sport, was printed at the top of a page and continued over two pages along the bottom.  The ad at the top stated "JUST £5 A MONTH*".  Logos for Barclays Premiership, Bank of Scotland, PGA Tour, btcc, NRL and Magners appeared underneath.  The ad at the bottom of the page was headed "Subscribe today for loads of premium sport". Below, text stated "On a FREEVIEW box call xxxx on Satellite call xxxx on Cable88 call xxx or subscribe at setanta.com". Underneath, small print stated "£5 offer ends April 30th 2007.  *Digital satellite £5 per month for the first 3 months.  £15 per month thereafter.  £7 connection fee. Minimum subscription period is 12 months ... Digital Terrestrial £5 per month for the first 3 months.  £10.99 per month thereafter. Terms and conditions apply. ** Cable customers contact your operator for pricing ... Barclays Premiership from Aug 07 ..."

The ad was printed the following week with an offer end date of 4 May 2007.

Issue
Sky TV believed the ad was misleading because:

1. it was unclear from the headline that  £5 a month was a special offer and only lasted for three months;

2.  the inclusion of the Barclays Premiership logo implied that viewers would be able to watch the Premiership for £5 a month but, because the offer only lasted for three months and the games were not due to start until August, the cost would be more; and

3. it was not clear that the closing date for the offer was three days after the ad appeared.  When the ad was printed the following week, the closing date was the same day as the ad appeared.

The CAP Code:

7.1;27.4;31.2;31.1;34.1 (old)

Response
1. Setanta Sports (Setanta) said they believed the prominent asterisk next to the headline alerted readers to the caveat, which stated the offer only applied for the first three months and would then revert to full price.  They said the caveat also stated the full price of the service.  They believed it was clear that the offer was only for three months.

2.  Setanta said the Barclays Premiership logo was one of six logos used in the ad and they were broadcasting the other five competitions at the time the ad was published.  They said, although the Barclays Premiership was not being broadcast at that time and would therefore not be included as part of the three month offer, the small print had stated "Barclays Premiership from Aug 07".

3. Setanta said they failed to see how the closing date for the offer was unclear because the 27 April ad gave 30 April as the closing date and the 4 May ad stated 4 May as the closing date.   They explained that the ad was intended to generate an immediate response from readers.  They said they repeated the offer because of the success of the 27 April ad.  

Assessment
1. Not upheld
The ASA noted that the part of the ad printed at the top of the page simply stated "JUST £5 A MONTH*" and included sports competition logos.  We considered that readers would understand that this was not the entire ad and were likely to look elsewhere on the page for more details.  We noted the ad at the bottom of the page included important terms and conditions and stated that the £5 offer was for three months only and gave the full price of the service afterwards.   We considered that readers were unlikely to miss the important condition that the offer was for a limited period.  We concluded that the nature of the offer was made clear in the ad.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 27.4 (Sales promotions), 31.1 and 31.2 (Administration) and pre-1 September 2007 clause 34.1 (Significant conditions for promotions) but did not find it in breach.

2. Upheld
We noted the Barclays Premiership logo was the first one featured in the ad and we considered that readers were likely to expect, as with the other competition logos, that they would be able to see the Premiership as part of the £5 a month offer.  We noted the small print explained that the Premiership was not available until August 2007 but we considered this contradicted the main claim in the ad rather than clarifying it.  We concluded that, because the Barclays Premiership was not included as part of the £5 a month offer, the ad was misleading.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clause 7.1 (Truthfulness).

3. Not upheld
We noted the short response time for readers to take advantage of the offer but also noted the closing date had been included in the ad as the first sentence in the small print.  We considered that the closing date for the offer had been made clear and we did not consider that readers were likely to be misled.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness), 27.4 (Sales promotions), 31.1 and 31.2 (Administration) and pre-1 September 2007 clause 34.1 (Significant conditions for promotions) but did not find it in breach.   

Action
We told Setanta to ensure that future ads did not refer to sporting events that were not included as part of the advertised offer.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)