July 12, 2012 – Even though DISH Network’s introduction of an STB with an automatic ad-skipping feature has prompted a furious legal response, the function could become so popular with consumers that it may prove difficult to take away.
According to a research note by IHS Screen Digest, DISH’s AutoHop feature in its Hopper set-top boxes — which will allow consumers to automatically skip ads during playback on a digital video recorder (DVR) when viewing broadcast network programming — may just be a ploy to cut retrans fees, but it could represent a fundamental threat to the advertising revenue that drives their business.
As a result, there has been a swarm of lawsuits and dire warnings of mass commercial failure for the television industry should advertising be taken out of the equation. After widespread industry rumblings against the feature and ongoing investment in such things, DISH, the third largest pay-TV operator in the US, filed a pre-emptive lawsuit against ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, asking for a declaratory judgment that the feature is legal and does not infringe on copyrights. Three broadcasters have responded with lawsuits of their own.