BSkyB Advert on Broadband Restrictions of Rivals Banned
The Advertising Standards Association (ASA) has condemned BSkyB for one of its recent adverts, where it directly attacked rivals BT and Virgin Media over restrictions on speeds during peak hours. This was seen by the ASA as a breach of advertising etiquettes.
The advert text read, “If you’re in a Sky network area, we don’t slow your broadband speed down at peak times – unlike Virgin Media and BT”.
Complaints filed by BT and a member of the public stated that only subscribers who download the most at peak hours are the ones whose speeds are restricted. However, the ad portrayed the impression that all subscribers’ download speeds were affected at peak times. Defending its position, BSkyB said that in theory, all the customers of BT and Virgin Media could be affected by speed restrictions according to the speed regulation policies of the companies.
The ASA however accepted that both BT and Virgin Media do have some speed restrictions in place, but ruled that the restrictions do not apply to their subscribers who use low bandwidths. BSkyB’s ad insinuated that even customers using low bandwidth systems are not spared. Hence, the ad was deemed misleading and the ASA ordered it to be banned on grounds of inaccuracy.
For information on your ISP and corresponding broadband speed, try using the broadband check from Broadband Genie to get a snapshot of your current download and upload speeds. It’s a good for a broadband comparison of the top internet service providers such as Virgin Media Broadband and BT Broadband.
