Ofcom has ruled that Sky was in breach of its broadcasting codes through promotions run in connection with the Virgin Media carriage dispute. The promotions were aired both on cable and the Sky satellite service either side of March 1, 2007 when channels including Sky One, Sky Travel, Sky News and Sky Sports News were removed from the cablenet.
A total of 11 different promotions were run between February 11, 2007 and March 25, 2007 that between them clocked up 2,500 showings. They took the form of straight announcements backed by channel logos alone and others that included clips of popular Sky One shows including Lost, 24 and The Simpsons.
The promotions drew complaints from consumers and Virgin Media itself, which said the so-called promotions were designed to damage customer relations and influence commercial relations.
Sky said the promotions were designed to advise customers on how they could receive Sky channels and that its ‘switch’ website was not given undue prominence. Virgin telephone numbers had also been displayed.
