Virgin Media has once again been rebuked by the advertising watchdogs for falsely comparing its services with Sky's.

It's the 19th time since August 2007 that Virgin Media has been the subject of an Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) adjudication. Eleven of those complaints have been upheld (often on multiple counts), six have been partially upheld, while Virgin was acquitted on two occasions. (You can see the full list of adjudications against Virgin here)

A further 31 complaints against the company have been "informally resolved", with the ASA declining to reveal the nature of those complaints.

Rival Sky has had 12 complaints upheld and seven partly upheld over the same period, although two of the upheld complaints related to adverts broadcast on Sky television that weren't made by the company itself. BT has had 11 adjudications, of which five have been upheld.

Virgin's latest rebuke centred on the company's claims that its broadband/television packages were cheaper than Sky's because they were all delivered down the same line, and for falsely implying that Sky customers couldn't get a single bill for all their services.

"Because we had not seen robust evidence that demonstrated that Virgin offered cheaper TV, broadband and phone packages than Sky, we concluded that on this point the claim was misleading," the ASA adjudication reads.

No punishment

The sanction, as with every other complaint upheld against Virgin, was that the ads should not be run again in their current form.

The ASA denies that it's too soft on the cable company. "Due to the prolific nature of the advertiser, it's an unfortunate inevitable consequence that there will be breaches [of the advertising code]," said an ASA spokesman.

"A lot of competitive comparisons goes on," the spokesman said, referring specifically to broadband companies. "They are going to try and push the boundaries on getting the competitive edge."

The ASA has the power to prohibit media space and force advertisers to seek pre-approval on non-broadband ads, but Virgin Media isn't currently subject to either sanction.

Virgin says the number of complaints is indicative of the market it operates in. "The home entertainment market is very competitive and whilst we strive for simplicity in advertising, when comparing our services with other providers, due to the complexities of the options available it's sometimes difficult to do an exact like for like comparison," said a company spokesman.