Sky slammed for using misleading broadband stats

 

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Posted on 8 Nov 2007 at 09:41

The Advertising Standards Authority has once again rebuked a broadband provider for misleading claims over the speed of its service.

This time the culprit is Sky. The company used statistics provided by a broadband comparison site to back-up its claims that its service was faster than that of cable rival, Virgin Media.

"When over 350,000 people tested their lines on thinkbroadband.com, the results showed that Sky's broadband customers got on average faster download speeds than Virgin Media's," the advert claimed.

Virgin Media and two members of the public challenged the claims, arguing that the Sky customers who took part in thinkbroadband's tests were paying for faster headline speeds than Virgin customers, thus explaining the difference.

The ASA agreed, rebuking Sky for taking thinkbroadband's results out of context. "we noted that the thinkbroadband.com website stated that the test did not reflect the performance of specific services available to customers and, as such, a broadband provider with more customers on low speed services would have a lower average than those offering more high speed services, irrespective of the quality of service, or speed-to-price ratio," the adjudication reads.

"The website made clear that the speed test was not a league table of broadband providers and should not be referenced as such. The ASA was concerned that Sky had used the thinkbroadband.com test data to compare speed performance with Virgin Media, even though the data made clear that it should not be used for that purpose.

"We concluded that the ad was misleading because it implied that Sky's service was, on average, faster than Virgin Media's service for all levels of broadband."

Sky was also slapped on the wrist for drawing two unfair price comparisons to Virgin's services in the same advert. The broadcaster cum broadband supplier has been told not to repeat the adverts and run any amendments by the ASA.

The ruling is just the latest incidence of the rival broadband providers using the ASA to settle their disputes. Virgin was hammered by the ASA in August after it drew misleading comparisons between its service and Sky's.

Author: Barry Collins