US court orders DirecTV to stop airing ads against Time Warner

A US court ordered satellite television operator DirecTV Group to drop advertisements that claimed its service was superior to Time Warner's cable unit, a Reuters report said.

The Reuters report said the ads, which featured ex-Star Trek actor William Shatner and pop star Jessica Simpson, aired last December and in January.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the US District Court in the Southern District of New York handed an injunction against DirecTV to prevent it from running ads in Time Warner Cable's markets that disparaged the quality of Time Warner's high- definition programming, the Reuters report said.

DirecTV was also ordered to take down any similar advertisements on its Web site, or other sites, according to the court order.

Time Warner filed the lawsuit in December, saying the DirecTV campaign asserted 'false advertising and deceptive business practices.'