Comcast Sues DirecTV Over 'Deceptive' Claims of 'Free' Televised NFL Games & Response from DIRECTV
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First before I comment, I invite you to look up any of my hundreds (thousands?) of posts both here and the other forum, I do not bash Direct TV, it would be my second choice to Dish. That said;
That ad may not be illegal, I don't know. But it sure as hell is beyond misleading. The first times I heard it I was wondering how they could make it free. And the first times it mentioned something along the lines of "Now that the NFL is back, to reward fans..." (NOT exact wording) making it sound like some kind of gift from the NFL. I honestly did think there has to be more to it, but how ever they managed it, legal or not, they found a way to certainly make it sound like everyone got it free.
Let me ask you all this. In light of a year of free Starz AND months of free Cinemax, or for some years of Cinemax at 1 cent all at the same time with Dish, why would this be out of the question with Direct?? At the least, I can guarantee it generates many calls from existing customers, who if anything like some answers from Dish CSR's, could be told who knows what to get them to continue to subscribe, or calm them down when they don't get it for free. (lol) You guys have to keep in mind many (most?) out there have no clue about how programming works like we do, so they hear this and jump. Those of us being honest who are fairly heavy posters/readers were not even sure of what was going on.
That ad may not be illegal, I don't know. But it sure as hell is beyond misleading. The first times I heard it I was wondering how they could make it free. And the first times it mentioned something along the lines of "Now that the NFL is back, to reward fans..." (NOT exact wording) making it sound like some kind of gift from the NFL. I honestly did think there has to be more to it, but how ever they managed it, legal or not, they found a way to certainly make it sound like everyone got it free.
Let me ask you all this. In light of a year of free Starz AND months of free Cinemax, or for some years of Cinemax at 1 cent all at the same time with Dish, why would this be out of the question with Direct?? At the least, I can guarantee it generates many calls from existing customers, who if anything like some answers from Dish CSR's, could be told who knows what to get them to continue to subscribe, or calm them down when they don't get it for free. (lol) You guys have to keep in mind many (most?) out there have no clue about how programming works like we do, so they hear this and jump. Those of us being honest who are fairly heavy posters/readers were not even sure of what was going on.
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yaz96 said:
Factual. All bumpers follow the same rules.
Soccer matches sponsored by a Budweiser box ad next to the score don't say "drive responsibly" or anything else.
First of all as a Directv dealer we are getting lots of calls from existing customers looking for their "Free" Sunday Ticket.
However Comcast really doesn't have a leg to stand on here, because their customers can indeed get Sunday Ticket at no extra charge if they cancel Comcast and go with Directv
If anyone should be suing Directv the people who are at a disadvantage are the small percentage of customers who have Directv and actually pay for the Sunday Ticket.
In all honestly the, Sunday Ticket is a good thing to have as a bonus if your signing up as a first time customer.
You should see how many people who don't know what the Sunday Ticket is all about and think they need it to watch Football on Sundays when all the want to do is watch their local team.
I got the MLB package and have yet to watch it once this season. Maybe its due to the fact im a Detroit Tigers season ticket holer and just go to all the games. I haven' turned it on in over 2 years!
However Comcast really doesn't have a leg to stand on here, because their customers can indeed get Sunday Ticket at no extra charge if they cancel Comcast and go with Directv
If anyone should be suing Directv the people who are at a disadvantage are the small percentage of customers who have Directv and actually pay for the Sunday Ticket.In all honestly the, Sunday Ticket is a good thing to have as a bonus if your signing up as a first time customer.
You should see how many people who don't know what the Sunday Ticket is all about and think they need it to watch Football on Sundays when all the want to do is watch their local team.
I got the MLB package and have yet to watch it once this season. Maybe its due to the fact im a Detroit Tigers season ticket holer and just go to all the games. I haven' turned it on in over 2 years!
I'm preparing a lawsuit against Anheuser Busch for false advertising in their "Out of Bud Light" commercial. See I downloaded that app and I didn't get beer pouring out of my phone. The commercial advertised that it would and there's no disclaimer to say "Hey stupid, you can't get beer out of your phone". Many smart people honestly thought that app would produce real beer from their phones. I WANT JUSTICE DAMMIT!
I also wonder how many of these subs do not realize that ST will be on auto-renew and that they will have to pay for each of the following years if they forget to cancel?
I don't watch commercials that's why I spent money on a HD DVR. And NO! I don't let commercials slip by I only watch delayed/recorded tv. I read the free NFL ST included for the first time at no extra cost from the little triangular ad on the front page of directv.com when the lockout was still in effect and when I went to pay my bill online.
Of course this is not factual but think about it carefully. This is extremely plasuible......
Of course this is not factual but think about it carefully. This is extremely plasuible......
One of my relatives just went to Direct a few days ago with the Free ST. Hope they were told about the auto-renewal.
it is pointed out on my billing. common sense and past history teaches us that most of the time subscriptions of this nature are almost always reoccurring billing / auto-renewals.
Those qualifications should not be in hard to read fine print. It should be stated up front in an obvious manner that nobody will miss. It is not baseless crap from Comcast.
It's not hard to read. Comcrap will lose this because they have no case. I've already posted this twice but here it is again for those of you who were sleeping..
See? Not tiny, not blurry, not buried in a 300 word essay. They even use drop shadowing on the text to make it stand out against the white in the ad.
See? Not tiny, not blurry, not buried in a 300 word essay. They even use drop shadowing on the text to make it stand out against the white in the ad.
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In any event, they told me up front that the free NFLST was contingent upon package selection etc, so I do not feel the least bit deceived. Just get me on that jury
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DodgerKing said:
No doubt bro. They'll be bitching about autorenew next year.
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It's not hard to read. Comcrap will lose this because they have no case. I've already posted this twice but here it is again for those of you who were sleeping..
See? Not tiny, not blurry, not buried in a 300 word essay. They even use drop shadowing on the text to make it stand out against the white in the ad.
That's easy to read, IF you have an hd display, and IF you stop the picture at the right time! Try reading it in real time on an hd display, much less on an sd one.
The first one is onscreen for 5 seconds, the second is there for 8 seconds. It's no smaller than the fine print on any other commercial, nor does it flash by any quicker than the fine print in any other commercial.
As for SD? I could see it just fine there too in glorious 480i on a 20" POS Daewoo CRT that has a serious convergence issue. Unfortunately it's tough to photograph a CRT screen, but since the disclaimers can be made out among the moire noise that the camera picks up (which you can't see in real life since it's a result of a pixel mismatch and misalignment between the CRT and the image sensor in the camera), you can bet it can be seen just fine by the human eye.
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Not going to read through the whole thread, sorry. The thing I find funny though is that Comcrap runs similar deceptive ads with their fine print, and then they go and sue someone for doing something similar(in my opinion they're jealous they can't offer NFL ST), which makes this whole thing stupid.
That's the whole point. It's the pot calling the kettle black, and they have absolutely no case because the fine print on these ads conforms to the industry standard.
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