Echostar’s streaming pay television service Sling TV says it will modify certain advertised claims on its website following a complaint made by rival platform DirecTV to an industry organization earlier this year.
The complaint was filed with the BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD), a self-regulating body that enforces certain standards for advertising and offers dispute resolution to encourage truthfulness in marketing.
DirecTV challenged certain claims made on a website operated by Sling TV where customers purchase service. Specifically, DirecTV took issue with Sling TV’s assertion that subscribers could “choose and customize your channel lineup” and that the company lets customers “choose what I pay for.”
The claims strongly suggested Sling TV customers could purchase channels on an individual basis, when they actually must first buy a core set of channels through one of two base packages called Sling Orange and Sling Blue.
After purchasing a core package of channels, Sling customers have the option to add genre-based programming packages, but they still can’t purchase individual channels from those add-ons.
“NAD found that while Sling offers a variety of choices and add-ons at various price points after customers select the base package, Sling customers do not have the ability to select and pay only for the channels they choose,” the NAD wrote in its finding. “All customers must first select and purchase one of the base Sling TV packages, and only then does Sling offer customization options. It does not, however, offer a fully à la carte channel selection experience without any limitations.”
While NAD said Sling TV needed to modify or discontinue the problematic claims, it said the company was able to support the notion that it offers customers “unparalled flexibility,” and that subscribers could “control what channels you pay for and customize your channel lineup so that it’s unique to you” when those claims are viewed in context with the rest of Sling TV’s website.
Echostar says it will comply with the NAD’s findings.
Sling TV and DirecTV operate rival streaming TV platforms. Earlier this year, DirecTV launched a handful of new genre-based packages that allows customers to purchase groups of channels based around common themes like news and sports.
