One poster was headlined "£299 less than Sky+HD", and text in a bubble in the body copy stated: "Our digital recorder has no equipment fee".- Small print stated: "12 month minimum contract and conditions apply. Subject to regional availability. Comparison with Sky+ HD box. Excludes competitor promotional offers."
A second poster was headlined "High definition without the sky high price". The text in a bubble in the body copy stated: "our digital recorder has no £299 equipment fee." Small print stated: "12 month minimum contract and conditions apply. Subject to regional availability. Comparison with Sky+HD box. Excludes competitor promotional offers."
BSkyB challenged whether the reference to Sky+ HD in both ads was misleading because there was no product or service of that name available.
Telewest argued that the text on the Sky website stated, "All the functionality you love about Sky+ is inside your Sky HD box", and said the distinction between Sky+ and Sky HD was not clear. It added that, when customers signed up for Sky HD online, a Sky+ subscription was automatically added, which was irremovable.
It argued that because it seemed Sky blurred the boundaries between the attributes of Sky+ and Sky HD, "Sky+HD" was simply a way of referring to Sky's offering. Telewest said it saw no consumer detriment in referring to Sky's product as "Sky+ HD".
The ASA did not uphold BSkyB's complaint.
BSkyB also challenged the claims that "our digital recorder has no equipment fee" and "our digital recorder has no £299 equipment fee", because, although they acknowledged that the Sky HD box involved a one-off £299 payment, they asserted that the Telewest HD package involved monthly payments on top of charges for the channel package customers chose, which it said, was equivalent to an equipment fee.
Telewest pointed out that its service did not include an equipment fee, whereas the Sky service did. It said that its Virgin TV Drive service included a monthly fee, but pointed out that the Sky HD service also had a monthly fee.
The ASA did not uphold either complaint made by BSkyB.