Virgin and Sky are once again embroiled in a feud – this time it’s advertising ethics

The rows between Virgin and Sky are becoming commonplace in the news. Earlier this year, the feud between the two companies centered around the amount of money Virgin was willing to pay so that its customers could have access to certain television programs offered by Sky, such as the highly popular Sky One. As a result, Virgin customers lost these channels and bad blood between the two companies became firmly entrenched.

Now the companies are feuding again, this time over allegations by Sky that Virgin is misleading its customers in its advertisements. Sky has complained to the ASA (Advertising Standards Agency) saying that Virgin’s advertisements are designed to make its broadband service more attractive to customers than that offered by Sky and that the ads are misleading. It claims that Virgin has engineered the advert to entice customers by making it appear that the service offered by Sky does not come close to that being offered by Virgin.

In the advertisement, Virgin features a table comparing its broadband service to that of Sky. According to this table, Sky is found wanting when it comes to providing benefits to its customers. According to the advert, Virgin customers can enjoy “up to 2Mb with as many downloads as you want”. As for Sky’s 8Mbps connection, the advertisement goes on to say, “They say it’s up to 8Mb but the further you live from the exchange the slower it gets. And they decide how much you can download”.

The ASA is now investigating the claims made by Virgin. One of the questions Sky asked about the advertisement is why Virgin hadn’t compared products that were alike. For example, it compares the Virgin 2Mbps with Sky’s 8Mbps instead of comparing the Vrigin and Sky 2Mbps. According to Virgin representatives, the company was not aware that Sky even offered a 2Mbps.