USA:Fox asks court to ban Dish's ad-skipping features

Fox Broadcasting Company is asking a court to put a stop to two features on Dish's new digital video recorder that let consumers skip commercials because it is hurting the TV networks' business.

In May, lawsuits and a countersuit were filed pitting No. 2 satellite provider Dish Network Corp against CBS Corp, News Corp's Fox, Comcast Corp's NBC Universal and Disney's ABC.

TV networks are upset that Dish, led by billionaire chairman Charles Ergen, would introduce the "AutoHop" feature that may well please viewers, but would undermine the networks' key source of revenue: advertising.

Dish's AutoHop feature on its Hopper DVR lets customers press one button to automatically skip commercials when they are watching recorded TV shows. Dish introduced its high-definition DVR called the Hopper earlier this year.

Fox said in a filing dated August 22 that is seeking a preliminary injunction against Dish in a district court in California because the network "likely to suffer irreparable harm" while the companies litigate further.

In addition, Fox said Dish's "PrimeTime Anytime" feature, a service that records all of the prime-time TV programs on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox with one click and then keeps them saved for up to eight days, violates Dish's contract related to accessing video programming on demand.