The UK’s advertising watchdog has banned adverts from TalkTalk and Now TV internet TV services over concerns that they misled potential customers about the amount of content available.
Adjudicators at the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled the ad for Sky’s Now TV streaming service exaggerated the amount of content on offer.
The service’s entertainment pack provides access to ten popular pay-TV channels including Sky 1, Sky Living and Sky Atlantic on a contract-free basis for just £5.99 per month.
Subscribers can watch live channels as well as on-demand box set and catch-up programmes. However rights restrictions mean Sky is unable to include certain programmes, including The Simpsons, in the service.
The ASA decided that the advert’s voiceover “gave the impression that all programmes would be available at the same time as they were broadcast” despite the presence of an on-screen disclaimer.
In its ruling, the watchdog claimed the text “contradicted rather than clarified the voice-over” and ruled “Because the ad gave the impression that all Sky 1 content could be viewed, when that was not the case, we concluded it was misleading.”
The regulator also banned an advert for TalkTalk’s YouView based TV service on the grounds that the catch-up services available, including iPlayer and 4oD, did not include all the programmes shown on the channels.
It brushed aside TalkTalk’s defence that the advert didn’t suggest consumers could watch every programme of their choice and the inclusion of an onscreen disclaimer advising: “Catch up available for certain channels only” and declared the ad to be “misleading”.