WASHINGTON — The contrasting characters of Rob Lowe aren’t the only starkly different things in DirecTV’s commercials, federal regulators said: So are deals for subscribers that have higher costs than advertised buried in the small print.

The Federal Trade Commission accused the nation’s largest satellite TV provider of deceptive advertising for not clearly disclosing that a discounted 12-month package required a two-year contract that included a big rate hike in the second year and a hefty early termination fee.

In addition, an offer for three free months of premium channels such as HBO and Showtime didn’t adequately disclose that customers would automatically be charged for them after the trial period unless they called to cancel, the agency said.

It’s the second time in recent years that the El Segundo, Calif., company has been accused by government officials of misleading consumers. DirecTV paid $13.25 million in 2010 to settle similar allegations filed by attorneys general of 49 states, as well as the District of Columbia.

The FTC suit seeks “many millions of dollars” in refunds for a “large” number of subscribers,

The action brought cheers from consumer advocates, along with a fine-tuned jab at the company.

“You can just imagine the TV ad: ‘I’m Rob Lowe, and here’s the price you’ll pay for DirecTV. And I’m Hidden-in-the-Fine-Print Rob Lowe, and we’re actually going to jack up your bill,’” said Delara Derakhshani of Consumers Union.

“We’re glad the FTC is going after these kinds of deceptive and misleading offers,” she said.

DirecTV denied the allegations.

“The FTC’s decision is flat-out wrong, and we will vigorously defend ourselves for as long as it takes,” the company said. “We go above and beyond to ensure that every new customer receives all the information they need, multiple times, to make informed and intelligent decisions.”