Broadcasters Sue Dish Over Ad-Skipping Service

Broadcasters Fox, NBC and CBS sued Dish Network Corp. [over] a service that offers commercial-free TV. Dish, the nation's second-largest satellite TV provider, filed a suit of its own seeking a judicial all-clear for its "AutoHop" ad-skipping technology. Dish said the unique service it launched this month doesn't violate copyrights and that it is seeing a "groundswell of support from consumers."

The fight is over a subtle but key question: Whether TV distributors can cut out commercials on consumers' behalf, or if consumers hold that power alone with their fingers on the remote.

Since May 10, Dish has been advertising a digital video recorder service called "Primetime Anytime" that gives consumers access to the last eight days of prime-time programming from the four major broadcast networks -- ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox -- with the commercials stripped out. The service, available to Dish's top-tier subscribers, uses technology called "AutoHop" to deliver the programming ad-free.

In a suit filed Thursday in a Los Angeles federal court, News Corp.'s Fox says Dish's service is unauthorized and violates a licensing agreement between the two companies.

It says the service is a form of unlicensed video-on-demand because the recordings are kept on a portion of the DVR's hard drive that is controlled by Dish. Fox only licenses its regular programs to Dish for playback on VOD on the condition that fast-forwarding of commercials is disabled.

If the service isn't stopped, it "will ultimately destroy the advertising-supported ecosystem" that underpins TV shows, Fox said.

Dish maintains that the service is "user-enabled" and that it is fundamentally no different from how consumers use DVRs today. It filed its suit in a New York federal court.

"Viewers have been skipping commercials since the advent of the remote control," said Dish's senior vice president of programming, David Shull, in a statement. "We are giving them...