Is Dish Network’s AutoHop Ad-Zapping DVR Good For Kids?
That’s the latest angle on Dish Network‘s case for the technology, which CEO Charlie Ergen made this morning at a congressional hearing on the Future of Video. With AutoHop, parents don’t have to worry that when their kids watch TV “they have no choice but to see commercials for junk food and alcohol,” he told the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. He says the feature simply automates what consumers can already do with a DVR. Broadcasters believe that “the consumer does not have a right to skip a commercial or record a show. We’ll fight the good fight for the consumer.” Gigi Sohn of activist group Public Knowledge sided with Ergen. “The public has a right to record what they want to record,” she says. AutoHop “turns three steps with a remote control into one, and consumers should have the right to do that.” Broadcasters are suing Dish, claiming that the feature — which automatically jumps past ads on recorded shows — violates their copyrights and the satellite company’s contracts with the program providers. Hearst Television chief David Barrett, representing the National Association of Broadcasters, added that AutoHop “remains a threat to the local broadcasting system.” Responding to a question from Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Col.) he said that the financial health of over-the-air TV is important “if you’re interested in having your station cover the forest fires in Ft. Collins.”
Related: Dish Network CEO Blasts Broadcasters Over Retransmission Consent Tactics
I see no problem with this if it is only for Dish network as you have to pay to subscribe to this service. Which in a way subsidizes the jump of the advertisements. What they are worried about is consumer’s getting used to this and being annoyed when they can’t do this with normal television that comes through for free like CBS, NBC etc. which subsidize their free showing of television with the ads they show.
If you’re watching TV for free you should have to watch ads. Those ads pay for the television. If you pay for an install of a satellite dish and pay for additional channels you should be able to skip the advertisements. If Dish is okay with it then their advertising partners don’t make that much of a difference to them. Their business model is just different.
Either fight it or find a better way to get advertisements to the public. Block advertising in between moments of a show has been going on for quite a long time.
If Dish shares subscriber revenue with the networks, sure. But they don’t do that. I’m sure that’s why the advertisers are mad.
Didn’t TiVo already have this and they were forced to take it out?
they could have, haven’t researched it but it would make sense for TiVo since their service would work on the normal “free” channels that come through…which would make the money companies pay these networks for ad space null and void.
Don’t know about Tivo, but ReplayTv did. Directv now owns the rpt patents but said they don’t see enough consumer demand to implement it. Can’t say I blame them since if the networks lose, their next step will be to jack up their prices considerably when it comes time to renegotiate transmission deals, to make up for the loss of advertisement fees.
Dish subscribers are screwed either way.
This is how bad the broadcasting industry is. 13 years since the introduction of the dvr and this is what they are up to instead of being creative and coming up with better ways for customers to advertisers while giving consumers what they want.
Any sort of ban on auto skipping of commercials wound be insane. The broadcasters have to be working towards the new world not begging to hang on to the old days.
I used to listen to 8-12 hours of radio a day even when they would have 25 minutes of ads an hour. Now I listen to podcasts and have a much more enjoyable experience but advertising is a big part of the business.
Look at what jkl did/does with ad skits at the beginning of the show. They are entertaining so people watch. The days of forcing people to sit through eighteen minutes an hour are gone forever. Broadcasters need to sort it out.
ad-hopping would be great in Italy!
It could be useful: a device that drop the audio volume and blank the screen at the moment the ad break starts !
It could bring democracy in Italy, because a tech like that one could lower the power of regime televisions (like the Berlusconi’s Mediaset)
go ad-skipper !!!