Attorneys are lining up to represent TV broadcasters in the very likely legal showdown with Dish Network over its Auto Hop feature, which allows viewers to watch programming via digital video recorders without any commercials.
“The parent companies of the four major broadcast networks — Fox Broadcasting, NBCUniversal, ABC/Disney Television Group and CBS Corp. — have begun consulting with major law firms with the expectation that litigation will be filed against Dish,” explains The Hollywood Reporter.
Dish CEO Charlie Ergen introduced Auto Hop to the network’s 14 million customers in March without telling any of the content providers about the skip function in advance.
It should be noted, however, that it remains unknown how many customers actually have the new DVRs that include the Auto Hop feature.
Dish continues to defend the feature. “The commercial zapping feature has to be activated; the recorded programs will still contain the ads if the button isn’t used. The feature also won’t allow the commercials to be skipped until at least 1 a.m. Eastern time the next day, and studies show that a significant amount of recorded programming is viewed the same night it airs,” reports The Huffington Post in a related article. “Dish has also supported broadcasters by paying significant rate increases for their content, said company spokesman Robert Toevs.”
Regardless, Fox and NBC have pulled ads for the Dish DVRs from their networks. Discovery CEO David Zaslav suggested that in order to compensate for lost ad revenue, Dish would need to raise prices for subscriptions. “If there isn’t going to be advertising, then there needs to be a lot higher subscriber fees,” he said.
Attorneys are lining up to represent TV broadcasters in the very likely legal showdown with Dish Network over its Auto Hop feature, which allows viewers to watch programming via digital video recorders without any commercials.
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