Broadcast Industry Wades In On Dish Network's Hopper 194
gollum123 writes "As with past technological threats, network executives are closing ranks against a Dish Network device that undermines the broadcast business model. The disruptive technology at hand is an ad-eraser, embedded in new digital video recorders sold by Charles W. Ergen's Dish Network, one of the nation's top distributors of TV programming. Turn it on, and all the ads recorded on most prime-time network shows are automatically skipped, no channel-flipping or fast-forwarding necessary. Some reviewers have already called the feature, called the Auto Hop, a dream come true for consumers. But for broadcasters and advertisers, it is an attack on an entrenched television business model, and it must be strangled, lest it spread elsewhere."
Shades of Adnix and Preachnix (Score:5, Informative)
- Carl Sagan, Contact, 1985.
Wish you could have been here to see it, Dr. Sagan.
Inside View (Score:5, Informative)
It will be interesting to see what happens next, but as was stated previously, I think the current advertising structure is dying.
Re:This the same DISH that drops channels all the (Score:5, Informative)
This the same DISH that drops channels all the time will they end dropping one of the big 4? over this?
I have to call you on this. When Dish (or DirecTV or Comcast-it has happen to all of them) "drops a channel" it isn't because they are trying to screw the customer. It is because the channel is trying to raise what it charges Dish for rebroadcast rights. Dish is saying no, trying to keep your rates down. If it ends in a stalemate, then the channel comes down. Everyone blames Dish/DTV/comcast, They know they will loose customers over this but it is the right thing to do. This does happen to dish more then the others, because they more aggressively try to keep rates down.
As for the locals ("the big 4"), they are supposed to be free tv, but they are trying to charge like they are a cable channel. They are really the most greedy.
Re:Don't do that. (Score:4, Informative)