Monday June 4, 2012 – Greg Scoblete
Right after the Consumer Electronics Show, we asked whether Dish could make the set-top
box cool again. That was certainly its intention with the new Hopper and Joey -
a home gateway system with the ability to automatically vacuum up a week's
worth of prime time programming from all the major networks simultaneously on
its 2TB hard drive (a feature dubbed PrimeTime Anytime).
While it's still a bit early to render a
verdict on the cool-factor, the early returns seem promising. At a minimum,
Dish has certainly done a nice job getting the Hopper noticed - by the lawyers.
What triggered this not-so-welcome legal attention was a new feature that Dish
announced for the Hopper - 'Auto Hop.'
Briefly, Auto Hop works with the Hopper's
PrimeTime Anytime system to eliminate all the commercials on the prime time
shows captured by the Hopper. This saves the consumer the time they would
presumably take fast-forwarding through those commercials when they watch their
DVR'd episodes.
Naturally, TV networks went ape.
Fox, CBS and NBC have now taken Dish to court
claiming copyright infringement. In a statement, NBC claimed that “Dish simply does not have the authority to tamper with the
ads from broadcast replays on a wholesale basis for its own economic and
commercial advantage.” CBS claimed that the Auto Hop feature modified existing
network content "in a manner that is unauthorized and illegal." For
its part, Dish countered by arguing that Auto Hop is simply a more
efficient means of doing what remote controls, VCRs and DVRs have always
allowed consumers to do - skip commercials. Moreover, Dish reminded the
networks that they receive "hundreds of millions" in retransmission
fees from Dish for programming they make available for free over terrestrial
airwaves.
As the New York Times noted in its reporting on the legal fracas, the
precedent here is ominous for Dish. ReplayTV offered a similar
commercial-skipping feature only to be "sued out of existence" by the
networks. And those networks have every incentive to fight: a Moody's Investors
Services note warned that the television industry faced
"broad negative credit implications" if the Auto Hop feature is
broadly deployed.
Not bad for a
little set-top box.
