Broadcasters like CBS that have threatened to pull themselves off Dish...
Broadcasters like CBS that have threatened to pull themselves off Dish Network in protest over the company’s AutoHop commercial-skipping feature would be “well-advised to tune in to the consumer,” CEO Joe Clayton said at a New York media briefing Thursday.…
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“Give the customer choice and control,” he said. “Give the customer a better experience and everybody wins. We all win. The fast-forward button didn’t kill the television business. Hulu didn’t kill the television business, nor did the VCR kill TV. In fact, the [TV] industry has thrived. Will innovation like the AutoHop improve the user experience? Well, of course it will … We at Dish embrace the consumer, embrace change and embrace technology. We believe giving customers what he or she wants is always a formula for success.” In Q-and-A, Clayton argued that although he can’t predict how the courts will rule on AutoHop, the commercial-skipping feature already has won “in the court of public opinion.” CBS, Fox and NBC each filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Dish in May over the AutoHop feature, and Dish also sued the networks seeking a declaratory judgment that AutoHop doesn’t violate copyrights.