IPL 2018 Live Streaming: Airtel Directed to Change ‘Misleading’ Advertisement

Bharti Airtel has been directed to amend its Indian Premier League 2018 (IPL 2018) advertising by the Delhi High Court. This comes after it’s rival Reliance Jio Infocomm alleged that Airtel was misleading customers with its latest commercial offering ‘free live streaming of IPL 2018 matches’. As per Jio, the Airtel’s latest campaign doesn’t mention that they would incur data charges and IPL 2018 live streaming is not absolutely free on Airtel.

“A frivolous complaint was filed against Airtel’s new ad campaign in the Delhi High Court seeking a stay on the same. No stay was granted. In fact, the honourable high court has suggested minor clarifications to the existing disclaimers. After seeing the order, we will take appropriate steps. Our ad campaign will continue,” an Airtel spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Economic Times.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Airtel has agreed that its advertisements would now clearly state that only subscription to Hotstar will be free, not the IPL 2018 live streaming and data charges will apply as per the subscriber’s tariff plan.

Interestingly, only registered subscribers, who pay the nominal fee, enjoy free live streaming of IPL 2018 on Hotstar while others get a delayed access to the content. However, only Airtel and Jio subscribers are currently availing the actual live streaming without paying the subscription fee.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 14, 2018 04:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).