CNN's Erin Burnett interviews AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, and Discovery Communications David Zaslav at the NCTA 2012 show in Boston.
(Credit: CNET/Marguerite Reardon)
BOSTON -- Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav warned Dish's CEO Charlie Ergen that he is playing with fire when it comes to his new commercial hopping DVR technology.
During a panel here at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association's annual tradeshow, Zaslav told CNN's Erin Burnett that the new feature Dish Network introduced recently on its Hopper DVR, which skips advertising during shows that are recorded from broadcast TV could disrupt the industry in a negative way. He said the model is unsustainable since content owners need the advertising revenue to help pay the cost of the content they offer.
"Charlie Ergen and Dish are a distributor of content," he said. "They need us to reach homes with our content. And if there is not going to be advertising fees, then there needs to be a lot higher subscriber fees."
The new Hopper DVR users an ad erasing technology that is embedded in the device. Once turned on, the technology will erase all the advertising that has been recorded on TV shows that air over broadcast TV channels. So far, Dish has limited the technology to broadcast TV channels only.
The new technology is seen as a technological advancement for cons... [Read more]
via CNET http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/NnTv/~3/DlqK8it_ed4/
Kink, I know this is just a repost of a Cnet article but I would think twice about posting it with inaccurate information. The last paragraph states “the technology will erase all the advertising that has been recorded on TV shows that air over broadcast TV channels.” This couldn’t be further from the truth. As a Dish employee I would be happy to offer the correct information. Auto Hop is a function of Primetime Anytime which records only the primetime content from ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX. When I select a show from Primetime Anytime I am asked if I would like to skip the commercials for that show. If I pick yes the commercials are skipped, much like they would be if I fast forwarded through them manually. The commercials are still there and I can watch them, if I really wanted to. Personally I like it because I can cram in a few extra episodes of my favorite shows before I go to bed because I don’t have to bother with the commercials.
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