Comments on: Dish TV’s Auto Hop: Broadcast Networks Fight Back

By: jenna

jenna — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:59:54 +0000

I don’t understand why CBS, FOX, & NBC execs don’t want us to enjoy commercial-free TV. I’m a DISH employee – AutoHop is great because you can easily watch commercial-free TV. Public Knowledge, a consumer advocacy group, is taking a stand for consumers by creating a petition that tells CBS, FOX, & NBC media to keep their hands out of your living room & DVR. Sign their petition to keep control of how you watch TV http://bit.ly/KFdn1Q

By: Cynthia Meyers

Cynthia Meyers — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:40:53 +0000

An interview with Charlie Ergen in the Wall Street Journal today mentions that Auto Hop may gain him negotiating leverage over retransmission fees, but also that Ergen’s own children have stopped paying for subscription TV. Says Ergen: “Ultimately, broadcasters and advertisers have to change the way they do business or they run the risk of linear TV becoming obsolete. I think the conversation is going to go a lot faster because now there is a risk of inaction as opposed to no risk of inaction.”

By: Dish TV’s Auto Hop: Broadcast Networks Fight Back « A Word from Our Sponsor

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 21:54:36 +0000

[…] You can find my post about Dish TV’s ad-skipping feature (Auto Hop) on their new DVR (The Hopper) and the broadcast networks’ litigious response to it on Antenna: Responses to Media and Culture, click here! […]

By: Myles McNutt

Myles McNutt — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:52:24 +0000

Thanks for the great post, Cynthia. I just thought I would share two comments that were recently left on posts here at Antenna related to the NBC series Grimm from Dish employees in support of the Auto Hope feature. They’re effectively hand-crafted spam, but it’s interesting to see the grassroots efforts to combat the networks’ rejection of the system (and their specific focus on Grimm, for some reason!).

From “Freddy”:

“Grimm’s one of the best shows on primetime and I love reading the article. I just happened across this show about a month ago when I upgraded to my Hopper. This automatically records all the primetime shows and allows me to view them later. Well, since I no longer need to choose I’m able to watch all these shows, and this is how I got hooked on the fairytale drama. Now I can keep my attention on the show instead of commercials. This only works on primetime recordings, the day after they air, and you need to select yes with each show. Now, I don’t have to manually fast forward commercials. One of my coworkers at Dish showed me how Auto Hop worked and how it will prevent me from always going past my shows, and then skip back. I don’t have to worry about replacing my batteries all the time, now that this feature is available.”

From “rabbit”:

“I was surprised to find the woman in black happened to be Nick’s mom. I wonder how the story’s going to continue when Grimm picks up in the fall. The past few weeks have been great being able to enjoy PrimeTime more, with Auto Hop from Dish. It’s an awesome feature that I’m that gives people the option to sit through annoying commercial breaks or not. I know that when I do watch TV, it feels like the ads are longer than the actual show, so that’s where Auto Hop is a huge benefit to me. With Auto Hop I do not have to fast-forward and rewind to find the start of the next scene. I was impressed with this feature after my coworker from Dish showed me. I think it’s great that viewers now have the choice of just skipping over the commercials without having to push the buttons.”