Commercial-free DVR survives its first day in court
While DISH Network’s ad-skipping Hopper DVR may be popular with viewers, the TV networks certainly don’t like it.
Earlier this year, U.S.-based DISH Network released its Hopper DVR – a device that enables people to watch commercial-free TV.
The Hopper has a feature called PrimeTime Anytime that allows up to six channels to be simultaneously recorded and can be set to automatically zap the commercials during playback – a feature DISH calls AutoHop. “Hate commercials? DISH created commercial-free TV so you can save an hour each night! Now you can automatically skip commercials in primetime TV on ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC,” says the DISH website.
Needless to say, DISH’s Hopper has irked the TV networks and Fox, NBC, CBS and Comcast have each sued the company.
However, in the first case to be heard, the U.S. District Court for California’s Central District has rejected Fox’s request for a preliminary injunction to disable the technology saying it violates neither copyright laws nor DISH’s agreement with Fox. It was not, however, a complete victory as, according to a statement by DISH, the judge found that “Copies of Fox programs that DISH makes as part of its ‘quality assurance’ of AutoHop’s functionality likely violate the RTC between DISH and Fox, and likely violate Fox’s exclusive reproduction right under federal copyright laws.”
DISH Executive Vice President and General Counsel, R. Stanton Dodge called the ruling a victory for common sense and customer choice. “DISH is gratified that the Court has sided with consumer choice and control by rejecting Fox’s efforts to deny our customers access to PrimeTime Anytime and AutoHop — key features of the Hopper Whole-Home DVR,” he said. “The ruling underscores the U.S. Supreme Court’s ‘Betamax’ decision, with the court confirming a consumer’s right to enjoy television as they want, when they want, including the reasonable right to skip commercials, if they so choose.”
The decision has not yet been made public in order to protect confidential trade information, and a redacted version has yet to be published.
The 1984 Betamax case, to which Dodge referred, was a precedent-setting ruling in the United States which confirmed that recording for the purpose of time shifting was fair use and did not constitute copyright infringement. There are clear parallels between DISH’s service and VCR-based recording. There is, however, one major difference between VCR and even current DVR technology and DISH’s Hopper. While both older VCRs and modern DVRs enable commercial skipping (either by fast-forwarding or jumping by 30 second increments) a user of these devices has to actively choose to do so for each and every commercial. With DISH’s AutoHop system, ads are skipped automatically and without any action required from the user after the initial setup. This makes AutoHop recordings akin to watching commercial-free on-demand programs. If this became the norm, it could have a substantial impact on the networks’ ad revenues.
What do you think about this, Sync readers? Should companies such as DISH be allowed to zap the commercials? Could it lead to TV networks introducing other – more intrusive – forms of advertising? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
[Source: BBC]
With just slightly more than 40 minutes of every hour devoted to actual programming, I’d say AutoHop is an absolute necessity. In future, actual programming time contained within an hour will drop to 30 to 35 minutes. What’s to stop networks from 25 minutes of programming every hour? Nothing.
Think about it: For every hour of network television watched, twenty minutes of one’s life is sucked into a vacuum to disappear forever into the ether, thanks to dull, uninteresting, useless and mostly obsolete advertising.
Abandon cable, all ye who enter here. Long live AutoHop!
My wife and I routinely record all the programs we want to watch so that we can fast forward the commercials – we have noticed that the stations have begun to introduce extremely short contact that can make us think the ads are finished when they aren’t.
You are right, the stations will work to find a way to get us to watch commercials – what is needed is more control to limit the commercial time allowed – let us not put all the blame on the stations when the regulations allow them to run rampant on our entertainment enjoyment.
If the time allowed for ads was a reasonable level we would not be having this conversation and the advertising rates would probably rise to reflect the larger impact they would have.
Exactly but this should just be the start and a message to the networks. Remember the good old days when you watched tv for free since the advertisers paid for the air time? Now they want you to be forced to watch their commercials, to pay for watching them and then pay them back for their advertising costs when you buy their product. Unbelievable.
If you want me to watch your commercials, give me my tv for free.
When I was a kid, years ago, we were in Germany and I was amazed that they played a program from start to finish without a commercial, and then ran the commercials after the program ended. I like that idea, because you can choose to either watch them, or go make some popcorn, etc, and not miss anything. North amercan Tv has a long way to go.
The European model of ads after the program is highly desired. Interestingly enough viewers do watch the bundled commercials which border on art. Gouging in North America is rampant and disgusting. Movies, etc., don’t start when advertised. PayPerVue starts with trailers and the list of unwanted commercial content grows daily. Either fix the problem or the Internet will take TV down.
As a consumer, I should not be forced to view a commercial if I chose not to view. Hoorah to DISH
The networks have long resisted allowing apple into their business as much as possible. They preferred instead to sell to traditional cable and satellite companies, maybe this will make them rethink that if all these companies start biting the hand that feeds them content
I always though those damned actors were far too high paid. About time we cut into some of their profit :). meh, I live in Canada, unless rogers is willing to do the same, this effects me how? Cable networks here don’t care about the consumer, they care about how to gouge them. Lets hear more about that, instead of the lawsuit in the states that makes little difference here.
Nice idea, and also wonder why cable and satellite stuff is soo ad driven especially if it is the payed variety by subscription. Similar for other varieties of info/entertainment in other venues.
I NEVER watch NASCAR races live on TSN anymore. I record it and give it a 1 and 1/2 hour head start. I usually am watching the finish live by the time I’ve skipped through the ads. It’s bad enough with a 1/2 hour show but watching the same Toyota ad 50 times is pathetic.
oh baby baby….oh baby baby!
I wish we had access to this in Canada. While I understand ad revenues help pay for programming the constant interruption by commercial advertising completely disrupts the story line hence spoiling the viewing experience, running several ads in a row and sometimes the same ad twice is very taxing on the viewer, I for one will go out of my way to NOT purchase a product which has irritated me.
Years ago in the early days of television advertising was at the beginning or end of a show, if you where interested in a product you could choose whether or not to watch it.
To add insult to injury we pay program distributors monthly subscriber fees to watch their programming and yet we have no choice in the programming format, namely the choice to skip their mind numbing commercials.
Advertisers have had their own way for too many years now, it’s about time consumer’s were given a choice and the means to view television the way they were meant to without being subjected to hours of wasted time from commercial garbage.
I agree. Why are we paying a monthly fee for cable TV (which is mostly crap for selection & content)and they get $ for running commercials as well? I would gladly suffer the commercials if cable was free.
I agree. I don’t know about other places, but here in Montreal, Cineplex is now showing commercials ( same as on TV) before the movie starts. THIS I HATE worse.. This commercial business is really getting out of hand.
Where can I get one!
Another article about an American product not available in Canada…..this is completely useless information for we Canadians. Why torture us with something like this?
Hey Blue, I know, I was of two minds when deciding whether to run this or not. But given that there is often a trickle-down effect with both tech and copyright law from the U.S. to Canada I thought Canadians might find this story relevant in the same way that they might find an article about a U.S. school banning Wi-Fi – these things tend to be trend-setting.
Because the networks allow their programs to run past the end of the half hour, presumably to get people to watch them live. I’d like to have a DVR that is smart enough to know when a program ends and then stop recording. Or, and here is a crazy thought, get the networks to stick to their own schedules. If a show runs from 9:00-9:30, have it actually end by 9:30.
We used to tape with a VCR, then watch our favourite shows commercial free & at a more convenient time. Can’t do that anymore, so I either buy through itunes or watch on-line, seldom even bother with tv.
Back in the day TV signals came through the air. Networks made their money with commercials. Hey that’s cool. Today we all pay through the nose for cable and satellite signals. Some of the programing…I just don’t know, but I digress. Anyway we really shouldn’t have to watch commercials if we are already paying hugh bucks for the service.
To me commercials are like junk mail that you can’t just toss in the garbage or like spam, run spam filters to remove them. It’s more akin to being force fed the junk and although they do pay for the programming it is mostly unwelcome.
To have a device that can do this automatically rather then fiddling with a remote to stop and start recording is time saving and less frustrating. If I was able to create software and do this on my computer I would.
Some commercials are ok and sometimes even funny and a bit entertaining but how can you get absorbed in a show when you keep getting interrupted? This defeats the purpose of the programming does it not?
There is a lack of balance and I would have thought by now in this day and age the media would have figured this all out. I gave away my belexpressvu receiver because I was not happy with a lot of it. Logos or watermarks, whatever you prefer to call them, I hated with a passion.
Volume levels were not always the same from channel to channel and had to adjust the volume level. Sometimes those logos would make it hard or impossible to read any subtitles in a show. To have to pay for local channels just to get the movie channels of which is all I wanted in the first place is something I did not like.
They are so worried about the money that they are not making the real changes and good changes to whats out there to the public. I have little confidence that any media provider will ever get things right.
sounds cool,all for this kind of technology,skipping commercials,would be great,one channel i can not stand on tv is AMC,hate watching there movies,nothing but commercials,5 minutes or longer,i mean waste of time,hardly watch tv now because of stupid commercials,
@Todd – I completely agree. I’m tired of having the last 30 seconds of a show cut off, when I watch on my PVR.
As for the Hopper, I think this is the way things are going to go. The networks don’t like it, because they’ve had a relatively low-effort income stream for decades. Advertisers are their bread and butter and keep the money coming in.
Now, they face the prospect of coming up with an alternative to easy, in-home advertising that advertisers pay for 100% (production, placement, etc.). THey already face competition for advertisers’ dollars, from billboards, what remains of print, internet and radio (the next to eliminate/modify traditional advertising).
I predict the future of TV advertising will be product placement or full-show sponsorship. “24″ did it with Ford for season premieres, Bones includes automobile product placement and American Idol has been Coke’s b*tch since the beginning; any brand you see in a show has been paid for.
Because networks/production companies aren’t likely to extend their show length, shows may be followed up with an 8 or 16 minute infomercial all about that sponsor. Then, you can choose whether or not to leave the room and do something else; or learn all about the latest thing you don’t really need.
This is all becoming of no concern. I was taking down my dish to put up an antenna and my neighbours asked me where I got it. They said that TV no longer holds any value for them as myself included. Too many channels with a guide that takes forever to go through and nothing really worth watching.
TV has taken a giant step backwards. The death of TV did come when Regan incresed the amount of commercials that could be shown in an hour.
I and my neighbours in Burlington only watch whatever the antenna brings in as we, as adults rarely watch TV.
The only thing that we all miss is the video rental store.
Canada is absolutely terrible for commercials. We pay an exhorbant fee for cable to watch commercials. I really try hard not to use the products that are advertised.
Please give us the DISH.Or put all adds at end of shows.Bad enough that we only get about 5 months of new programming a year, the other 7 months we watch REPEATS>
I mute commercials and do something else. You can get a lot done during the time commercials play. You’d be surprised!
Abolish the corporate fiction, it;s rights and protections and have your country, govt and wealth back..corporate fascism is alive and well on planet of the apes too lazy to research the regimme from hell..Corporate, Vatican, from city states that usurped alll our wealth, freedoms, power, energy resources etc..
They did it by buying the political systems and all within it..today the masses are deluded, dumbed down lunatics loving their slave masters and a fictional religous delusion.
If no one steps up and discloses the fraud of this world top to bottom it will never end..so get knowledgeable of reality or keep taking corporate &*%#!! in your anus.
This is wider and deeper than commercials.. it is freedom, democracy and truth that suffer..
Using these systems only feeds the monster. Cut your credit cards. Close your bank accounts, pay down your debts or claim bankruptcy. Credit unions are for the people not the filthy rich maggots sucking us dry.
Oh dear I may have offended the monster and all owned by it..tough luck..death to corporate everything..or enjoy their fema camps.
Nato is just a banker’s army not defenders of anything but the profit of the money pigs.
Tired of lies and fictional delusions created generation after generation cradle to grave stupid.. then wake up..step up and smarten up or shut up.
That ol C plus average moron one size fits all pretty much does too..fit all these days of phoney reality tv and corporate news..baaa. Go brush the grass stains off your rotten teeth sheeple.
YOU are the problem since bullies and criminal frauds will do exactly what you allow them to do. There is no law only c orporate fictions. Statutory law applies to corporate not you fools.
The scam is to the core of global civilization. Millions starve for Loblaws profit margins..all corporate is full spectrum satanism and usuery.
The Pope owns your butts and the corporatioon is a roman pagan invention to enslave you..and man are you idiots slaves..to religions, ideologies, greed, selfishness and cowardice.
second thought..you deserve what you get by allowing it to exist at all, fight or go in the crapper and shoot thyself..corporate plans to thin the herd anyways so save them a quarter and buy your own bullet.:)They’ll sell it to you.!
@Chill – Chill.
What he said.
Wow, switch to Decaf.