Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Advertising Standards (307 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Advertising Standards

VIDEO BBC TV Watchdog Scalds Virgin Media for Repeated UK Ad Bans

13th October, 2012 (37 Comments)

ISPreview.co.uk isn’t the only one to notice the ridiculous amount of banned adverts for Virgin Media’s broadband, phone and TV packages, which the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has repeatedly accused of being “misleading“. This week saw the BBC’s famous consumer affairs TV show, Watchdog, take the ISP to task with a comical twist.

New Rule Stops UK ISPs Separating Line Rental Cost from Broadband Prices

4th October, 2012 (12 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) will from today officially begin enforcing a new rule that requires ISPs to ensure that the cost of any compulsory phone line rental service is “stated sufficiently prominently” alongside adverts for related broadband bundles.

ASA UK Ban Virgin Media TV Advert for Misleading Broadband Buffering Claim

3rd October, 2012 (7 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has once more raked Virgin Media over the coals after a TV advert for the service, which featured Dr Who actor David Tennant, misleadingly implied for a second time that customers who joined their super-fast broadband ISP could “say goodbye to buffering” on internet video streams.

ASA UK Bans Sky Store Advert for Instant Movie Rental Downloads Claim

29th August, 2012 (9 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a press advert for Sky’s (Sky Store) movie rental service after rival ISP BT complained that it would have required a significantly faster internet connection than Sky Broadband could deliver in order to meet their “available instantly” promise.

Broadband ISP Speed Guidelines Extended to UK Mobile Broadband Adverts

6th August, 2012 (1 Comment)

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP / BCAP) has today announced that UK Mobile Broadband operators will soon become subject to the same guidelines that were recently introduced to tackle misleading promotions of fixed line broadband ISP speeds.

ASA Ban Virgin Media TV and Website Ads Over Misleading Performance Claim

25th July, 2012 (8 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has, yet again, upheld complaints against two “misleading” TV and website adverts for Virgin Media’s superfast broadband packages. In particular BT successfully challenged Virgin’s claim that its service did not suffer from “buffering” on internet video streams.

Virgin Media UK Fails to Get Sky Totally Unlimited Broadband Claim Banned

18th July, 2012 (9 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has rejected an attempt by Virgin Media to have rival Sky Broadband’s claim of offering a “totally unlimited broadband” package banned from its TV, press and website promotions. Meanwhile Sky succeeded in having several adverts for Virgin’s TiVo service banned.

ASA UK Advert Ban Stops ISPs Excluding Line Rental from Broadband Prices

4th July, 2012 (6 Comments)

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has today given UK ISPs three months to adapt after a revised ruling against Virgin Media banned the provider, and all others, from separating out the cost of compulsory phone line rental in their broadband bundles.

Virgin Media Ad Banned After Usain Bolt Fails to Double All Broadband Speeds

27th June, 2012 (3 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned two online adverts for Virgin Media’s broadband service after Sky Broadband (BSkyB) complained that VM “misleadingly” used sporting icon Usain Bolt to promise that the ISP would be “doubling everyone’s broadband speeds” when in reality some customers did not benefit.

ASA Ban Utility Warehouse Ad for UK Cheapest Broadband Bundle Claim

30th May, 2012 (0 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a “misleading” circular advert for the Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus plc) ISP after it claimed to offer the “UK’s cheapest” home phone and broadband bundle. Identical claims were also made for the provider’s mobile tariffs, gas and electricity.

TalkTalk Fails in Bid to Have UK Advertising Watchdog Pull BT Infinity Ad

23rd May, 2012 (17 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has rejected an attempt by TalkTalk to have a rival TV advert for the BTInfinity (FTTC) superfast broadband service pulled. The ISP accused BT’s promotion of “misleadingly” implying that fibre optic broadband services were only available from BT.

UPD ASA Slap TalkTalk Broadband Speed Checker over Misleading Estimates

16th May, 2012 (1 Comment)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint by one of TalkTalk’s UK customers against a broadband speed checking facility on the ISPs website, which was found to deliver a “misleading” estimates of expected performance because it didn’t go far enough to make clear that the speed consumers received was “likely to be lower than the estimated” range.

ASA Bans Virgin Media Advert for Misleading UK Fastest Broadband Claim

9th May, 2012 (4 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a technology magazine advert for Virgin Media’s 50Mbps superfast broadband service after BT complained that its claim to offer the “UK’s fastest broadband” was misleading. Several other ads were also banned because they failed to include the cost of Virgin’s Phone Line service.

ASA UK Bans Virgin Media Broadband Bundle Advert for Super Tiny Small Print

25th April, 2012 (0 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a press advert for Virgin Media’s “Faster for a fiver” broadband and phone bundle promotion after it was deemed to be “misleading” because the small print was too small to be legible.

Stricter Rules Cause UK Advertised Broadband ISP Speeds to Fall by 33 Percent

24th April, 2012 (0 Comments)

A new uSwitch study has revealed that the recent introduction of stricter guidelines by the UK Advertising Standards Authority (full details) has caused advertised (headline) broadband ISP “up to” speeds on non-superfast packages to fall by 33% (-7.08Mbps) from an average of up to 21.66Mbps to 14.58Mbps (Megabits per second).

ASA UK Ban BT Infinity Superfast Broadband Ads for Misleading Speed Claims

18th April, 2012 (9 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld four complaints by Virgin Media against a press (a), TV (b) and internet promotion (c) for the BTInfinity superfast broadband ISP service. The ASA deemed BT’s claims that its service was “unbeatable” and offered “three times faster fibre optic broadband” to be misleading.

UPD Confusion as UK ISPs Struggle to Adopt New Broadband Speed Rules

3rd April, 2012 (4 Comments)

Broadband internet providers around the UK are still struggling to adapt after new advertising guidelines were imposed on Sunday 1st April 2012 (full details), which is despite ISPs having a full years worth of advanced warning. One of the biggest problem areas appears to stem from how an ISP is now expected to demonstrate that its advertised speeds are achievable by at least 10% of users.