Sky Anytime TV advertising banned
December 14, 2011
A big TV campaign for BSkyB’s Sky Anytime+ on-demand service has been banned by the UK Advertising Standards Authority after Virgin Media complained that it misled consumers by telling them it was free.
The TV campaign featured a number of characters from the fictional court of Camelot –explaining the benefits of Sky Anytime+ for watching films and TV series box sets ‘for free.’
Rival Virgin Media complained it was misleading, arguing that in order to watch films on the on-demand service, subscribers had to be signed up to a Sky Movies package which comes at an additional cost. BSkyB said the complaint should be dismissed because it ran an on-screen text message explaining that access to content on Sky Anytime+ “depends on Sky TV subscription”.
The ASA said the ad “gave a misleading impression of what was being offered”. It banned the TV ad for breaching the advertising codes on the grounds of exaggeration and for misleading consumers.