Court of Appeals upholds Hopper, AutoHop ruling

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Dish NetworkOn 1/24, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously denied Fox Broadcasting Company’s petitions to rehear the court’s July 2013 rejection of Fox’s efforts to bar DISH subscribers from use of the PrimeTime Anytime and AutoHop features found on the pay-TV provider’s Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR.


The PrimeTime Anytime feature provides consumers with the ability to record primetime shows on up to each of the four broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) and save them for up to eight days. The AutoHop feature provides consumers the ability to play back certain PrimeTime Anytime recordings commercial-free, starting the day after broadcast.

Said DISH Executive Vice President and General Counsel, R. Stanton Dodge: “With this decision, the Court continues to reject Fox’s efforts to deny our customers’ access to PrimeTime Anytime and AutoHop — key features of the Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR. “This is a victory for American consumers, and we are proud to have stood by their side in this important fight over the fundamental rights of consumer choice and control.”

RBR-TVBR observation: The decision will likely spur other MVPDs to offer similar services to stay competitive with Dish’s offering. Nonetheless, broadcasters are going to include these estimated ad-skipping losses into their retransmission negotiations with Dish as the contracts come up for renewal.