Dish Advertisements

It is reported that Dish is discontinuing two of the three TV ad claims that were challenged by DirecTV recently. Dish Network said that they were actually planning to drop the advertisements anyway.

National Advertising Division (NAD), the self-regulatory body of Better Business Bureau has confirmed the news. “The advertiser represented to NAD in writing that it has permanently discontinued two of the three claims at issue in this challenge: the claim that DirecTV customers pay an average of over $100 per month (referred to by the parties as the “ARPU claim”) and the claim that DirecTV assesses a “Year One Price Increase” on its customers,” said NAD.

However, NAD is not looking into these claims due to the action of Dish Network. The department said that Dish explained their plans to discontinue their advertisements anyway, which is the reason they agreed to comply, and said that Dish Network disagrees with NAD treating them as though they had recommended the ads to be withdrawn. Moreover, Dish had said that they are happy that the “free channels” claim passed.

Dish Network Ads

DirecTV had challenged the claims made by Dish Network in six television advertisements. They also took the issue with the claim of Dish of a “local channels fee”. This particular advertisement shows a pay TV installer who tells a customer that they won’t be able to watch local broadcast channels without spending more money. The Dish ad suggested that the viewers need to a pay separate fee for the local channels, but that is not the reality.

NAD concluded that the ad claims of Dish Network were directed towards the pay TV industry in general, making reference to the “introductory TV deal” a competitor. NAD said that the reasonable conclusion from the advertisements of Dish was that some of the pay TV providers might charge additional fee other than their usual service charge prices.

Dish Network added that among the eleven of the largest pay TV providers, only two satellite TV firms are not charging any fees for local channels. They also said that 58 million of the 113 million pay TV homes pay such additional fee to get local channels.