CBS Threatens to Pull Plug on Dish Over Ad Skipping Tech 'Hopper Cannot Exist' Says CBS Boss Thursday Sep 13 2012 12:53 EDT As we've been discussing, Dish is now offering users a new DVR ad-skipping technology that has most cable and broadcast executives running for the waaaaambulance. Dish's Hopper technology simply automates something DVR users are already doing (skipping ads), provided the program they're viewing is at least one day past its live air date. The result has been an amusing platter of broadcast executive hysteria and several lawsuits, companies like Fox and Time Warner Cable insisting that Dish is destroying the known television universe by giving consumers what they want. In an attempt to make a few concessions, Dish recently tweaked their Hopper technology ever so slightly as to make it less useful, but that didn't stop the broadcaster court attack. Taking things a step further, CBS is now threatening Dish with pulling all CBS-owned content if Dish doesn't shelve the technology completely: quote:
"Hopper cannot exist," Moonves told investors at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media Conference Wednesday. "If Hopper exists, we will not be in business with (Dish). We cannot produce episodes for $3.5 million a piece and have the people at Dish say they will pull out the commercials. We will not be on Dish. We will go elsewhere."
It seems unlikely that just "taking their ball and going home" or being a bully are going to help CBS cope with the natural and inevitable evolution taking place in their business sector. |
 RRedlineRated R
Premium Member
join:2002-05-15
USA |
RRedline
Premium Member
2012-Sep-13 1:07 pm
People are tired of commercials!They intentionally make their advertising disruptive and annoying, then they throw a fit when people want to avoid it. Almost one third of all air time is devoted to commercials now. Television shows used to have 1-2 minute intro sequences, and they ran for 47-48 minutes for an hour show. Now they show very, very short intro sequences (more room for commercials), run for maybe 41-42 minutes (more commercials), and then they have the nerve to overlap the endings of some shows with the beginning of the next (more commercials)!
Gee, I wonder why people are fed up with commercials and just want to watch their favorite shows without so many disruptions? I wonder why so many people just pirate TV shows and watch them commercial-free?
But hey, let's keep paying people $1,000,000 for less than one week's worth of work. | |
How about .. |
