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BSkyB's knuckles rapped for breaching advertising rules in 2007
# 27 October 2008, 22:52 by Cable Forum
It was reported on Monday that satellite giant, BSkyB, got a firm ticking off from media watchdog, Ofcom – due to last years falling out with Virgin Media and Sky advertising promotions, which would then only be available to Sky customers. Virgin Media and Sky failed to reach an agreement and Sky removed its basic channels from the cable providers TV platform. Sky then launched a series of what was considered at the time, “influential” advertisements which told viewers, that if they wanted to watch the latest episodes of their favourite Sci-fi TV programmes, such as Lost and or Battlestar Galactica, they would need to be a Sky TV customer, as such programmes would no longer be viewable on Virgin Media.
This action by Sky, sparked outrage with 127 viewers who complained to Ofcom, as did Virgin Media.
The ads were effectively aimed so that they would invite Virgin viewers to come out in support for the Sky basic channels to remain on Virgin Media. To this date, these channels remain off the cable tv network and further negotiations between Sky and Virgin this year, have not reached a final conclusion.
However, despite this, Ofcom has now concluded that the series of advertisement promotions, broadcast in 2007, was “not in the spirit of advertising regulations”.