NEW YORK — A federal judge has
allowed Dish Network to continue
sticking its thumb in DirecTV’s eye.
DirecTV on Feb. 11 sued over
its rival’s “Why Pay More” ad
campaign, which the larger satellite
operator alleged made a
false comparison between the
companies’ programming packages
and pricing. Last week, the
U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of New York denied
DirecTV’s emergency injunction
to stop the ads and found that
it failed to prove a “likelihood of
success on the merits.”
DirecTV is still seeking an order
requiring Dish to retract its claims
and run corrective ads, plus unspecified monetary damages.
The operator accused the No. 2
satellite operator of false advertising
for the “Why Pay More” ads,
which imply that customers can
get a channel lineup from Dish
for only $39.99 per month comparable
to one from DirecTV for
$63.99 per month.
“We will vigorously pursue our
lawsuit to prevent Dish Network
from attempting to lure customers
away from DirecTV through
its blatantly misleading advertising
campaign,” DirecTV senior
vice president of advertising and
public relations Jon Gieselman
said in a statement.
Dish executive vice president
of sales, marketing and programming
Tom Cullen said in
a statement, “We stand by the
comparisons we make and are
confident we will also prevail in
the lawsuit.”
Dish rebutted DirecTV’s claims
that the ad compares “apples
and oranges,” asserting the ad
fairly compares its own America’s
Top 120 package with DirecTV’s
entry-level Choice package,
when a customer orders service
for two TVs. “Clearly DirecTV gets
very unhappy when consumers
compare our two brands, but the
claims in their lawsuit are without
merit,” Cullen said.
