Ad Industry Probe Recommends That Comcast, Dish Drop Content, Cost Claims

Comcast and Dish Network are being advised to drop particular ad claims having to do with availability of content and with costs associated with the service, by the National Advertising Division (NAD), the investigative unit of the ad industry’s self-regulation system. In a news release Thursday, NAD said DirecTV challenged Comcast ad claims about the DBS service being based on old technology and having a quarter of the "unique TV show and movie titles" that DirecTV offers. NAD said it didn't agree with Comcast that consumers would understand the claim to include identical programming each time it's available on different platforms, such as via set-top box, online or mobile app. In a statement, Comcast said it "will take NAD’s recommendations into account in developing future advertisements.” In a separate news release Thursday, NAD said Dish agreed to drop ad claims challenged by DirecTV, saying Dish had adequate support to back other claims. NAD said Dish voluntarily dropped claims about the average monthly bill amount for DirecTV customers and DirecTV assessing a particular price increase. Dish "agrees to comply with NAD’s decision," the company said in a statement. Though pleased with NAD determining the local channels fee claim was supported, it disagreed with NAD treating claims that it didn't even review as though it had recommended their discontinuance when Dish independently decided to end the ads before the initiation of the NAD process, Dish said.