DISH, DirecTV Continue Battle Over Advertising Claims

Satellite companies DISH
and DirecTV continue to spar over their respective advertising claims, the
latest bout coming today (Feb. 16) in New York
court.

DISH Network plans to tell a federal
district court in Manhattan that
DirecTV's request for a temporary restraining order against a DISH
ad campaign's latest ad is baseless.

The hearing on the restraining order stems from DirecTV's charge that DISH
is comparing its basic package to DirecTV's "mid-level" package.

DirecTV claims that DISH's most recent ad,
"Man in the Street", makes false claims about pricing and
programming.

DISH counters that the claim about pricing
is based on the "erroneous" assertion that it is comparing the two
different pacakages. DISH says that
DirecTV's assertion that the ad says the packages have identical channel
lineups is also wrong. "The commercial says no such thing," DISH
states in a court filing, a copy of which was supplied to B&C.
"If DirecTV belives that the commercial implies that message, then it has
the burden of demonstrating that..."

DISH, which has been complaining about
DirecTV's ads as well, says it plans to file a counter-claim and cross-motion
for its own temporary injunction against DirecTV.