Bharti Airtel has been asked to change its Indian Premier League advertising campaign by Delhi High Court after allegation from Reliance Jio Infocomm declaring the ad campaign to be ‘misleading’, ‘deceptive’ and ‘misrepresentative’.The company has argued that the content will incur data charges for the plan, hence it’s not free unlike it is being stated as in the “ad campaign”.
In the Airtel promoted advertisement, it is being popularised that users can access T20 cricket coverage “live and free” for which all they need is a 4G Airtel SIM to download the TV app and get access to a virtual season of the coverage.
“The deception and misinterpretation in the advertisement are aimed at enticing and luring the viewers to subscribe the defendant’s telecom service (Airtel) and give it preference over other service providers in the market including that of the plaintiff(Jio)”, said the court.
As reported an Airtel spokesperson,
A frivolous complaint was filed in the high court seeking a stay.However, no stay was granted.The court has suggested minor clarifications, that we will take into consideration and ensure we come with suggested disclaimers. Our ad campaigns will continue.
While, both telecom companies are betting high on IPL, which is expected to bring 700 million viewership, they have rolled out advertisements and content-driven partnership to gain maximum attraction including a tie-up with Hotstar for live virtual coverage.
As of now, IPL could be viewed digitally with a 5-minute lag. But, now Airtel and Jio have made it possible to get access to full virtual coverage of the season using Hotstar App, without the need of paying any subscription fees.