British Sky Broadcasting Ltd t/a Sky 7 Centaurs Business Centre Grant Way Isleworth Middlesex TW7 5QD Number of complaints: 5

Date: 24 October 2007 Media: National press, Regional press Sector: Computers and telecommunications

Ad
An ad in the national and regional press for Sky media services was headlined "Why do existing Virgin Media customers often pay more than new ones?" Smaller text beneath stated "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 ".

Issue
The complainants challenged whether the ad was misleading because:

1. one complainant who was already a Sky customer said Sky told her it would cost £159 to upgrade her package to Sky+, but that a new customer would pay £49;

2.  the offer of a free Sky+ box and free installation applied to new customers only; and

3. Sky+ was being offered free to new customers with a £40 connection fee, an existing customer said he was told he would have to pay £45 for the box and a £40 connection fee.

The CAP Code:

3.1;7.1;15.1;18.1

Response
British Sky Broadcasting Ltd (Sky) said new and existing customers paid the same standard prices for their subscription services and digital satellite equipment. They 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 they ran periodically for time limited periods.  They said they did not include their special offers in the comparison claim made in the ad.  However, they said they had included Virgin Media's special offers in the comparison because they believed those offers were in fact standard prices. They sent information from the "Special offers" page of Virgin Media's website and a copy of Virgin's ad "Truth, Lies and Broadband", and argued that the prices presented in those documents were standard prices and not special offers.

1.  Sky asserted that the standard pricing of a Sky+ box was not £49 for new customers and £159 for existing customers. They said the customer may have been told about a specific special offer they had run previously.

2.  Sky said the free Sky+ box was a short-term special offer and not part of the standard pricing they used to make the comparison in their ad.

3.  Sky said that the standard price for a Sky+ box had never been free for new customers and £45 for existing customers.  They said it had been free to new customers only in the "Introduce a friend" offer they had run until 17 June 2007.

Assessment
1., 2. & 3. Upheld
The ASA noted Sky's assertion that the claim "we think it's wrong to advertise attractive sounding prices that are often only available to new customers" referred to their standard prices, and did not include special offers they ran periodically. We also noted that, as part of Sky's "Introduce a friend" offer, a new Sky customer could receive a free Sky+ box and free standard installation, but existing Sky customers could not.  

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 ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness), 15.1 (Prices) and 18.1 (Comparisons).

Action
We told Sky not to repeat the ad.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)