By Richard Mullins Tampa Tribune, Fla.

May 1–TAMPA — In case you hadn’t noticed, Verizon and Bright House Networks really don’t like each other.

The rivals in cable, telephone and Internet service are in a pitched battle for customers, and now they’re fighting over each others’ advertising.

The latest salvo came Wednesday morning when Verizon attorneys faxed a letter to Bright House demanding they “cease and desist” from making what they call “despicable” claims about Verizon’s service.

That followed a claim earlier this month by Bright House officials that Verizon’s advertising was twisting the wording of magazine articles about Verizon’s HDTV service — akin to an over-reaching movie review.

This all seems to be part of a growing trend for cable and satellite companies to get nasty with ads.

For instance, a DirecTV ad campaign now shows a grumpy set of cable TV executives starting a “blame storming” session over the success of satellite TV. Verizon nationally has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, decrying the latest Time Warner Cable ad that mocks a Verizon salesman.

Bright House has a similar campaign running in the Tampa Bay area against Verizon, but Verizon has not taken court action against Bright House in Florida. But something like that could be coming.

Wednesday’s letter from Verizon wasn’t quite a lawsuit, but rather a terse missive that stopped just short of calling for court action.

“Bright House is once again using promotional materials which make false and deceptive statements about Verizon’s products and pricing in promoting its services,” wrote Elizabeth B. Sanchez, Verizon’s assistant general counsel for mass markets in a letter to Bright House.

She demands that Bright House “immediately cease and desist” from making a series of claims that Bright House has at the Web site, mybrighthouse.com/truth, which Bright House promotes in television ads. On the Web site, Bright House asserts “With Verizon there is always a contract.” That phrase upset Verizon officials, who point out that Verizon has month-to-month deals.

Bright House also claims that Verizon customers must pay a $79.99 fee for repair calls, a statement that Verizon calls wrong. “This is pretty despicable,” said Verizon spokesman Bob Elek, “and doesn’t exactly engender a sense of faith in their company or their services.”

Bright House has its own gripes with Verizon advertising.

This month, Bright House officials decried a Verizon print advertising campaign that claimed the publication CNET endorsed Verizon’s HDTV service as “a near-flawless TV experience.”

But the phrase didn’t come from a review of Verizon’s TV service. Rather it came from a CNET News .com June 2007 article that actually said, “fierce competition from cable operators reinforces how important it is for Verizon to offer a near-flawless TV experience.”

“Verizon continuing to use the comments from CNET out of context speaks volumes to their continued misrepresentation of the facts,” Durkin said.

For its part, Verizon officials say they have pulled the ads that claim a “near-flawless” experience, and replaced them with a quote from a PC Magazine article that describes Verizon’s HDTV service as “stunning.”

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at rmullins@tampatrib.com