Russell Crowe Sets ‘The Water Diviner’ For … 
Comedy ‘I Didn’t Do It’ Gets Series Order … 
CNN’s ‘New Day’ Debut Up In Demo But … 
Liv Tyler To Co-Star In Damon Lindelof’s HBO Pilot … 
DreamWorks Animation Launches Effort To Re-Position Itself … 
‘Pacific Rim’ Sequel In Planning Stages, … 
Legendary “Down To Handful” Of Studio Suitors: … 
UPDATE: Dan Harmon Apologizes For Comments Slamming … 
Paramount- Montecito Set Black List Scribes Eyal Podell … 
‘Bioshock’ Creator Ken Levine Takes On … 
Deadline Expands: Hires Washington Post Journalist Lisa De … 
Ratings Rat Race: ‘The Voice’ Rises, … 
Angelina Jolie Stunt Double Files First U.S. Phone-Hacking … 
MGM & BermanBraun Sign TV Production Deal, First-Look … 
‘Venus And Serena’ Producer Calls Tennis … 
Kim Basinger In ‘Petit’ Lead For Danish Helmer … 
EMMYS: ‘Big Bang Theory’s Science 
Has Summit Pulled A Rabbit Out Of The Hat With Dean Parisot … 
‘Client List’ Season 3 Pickup In Limbo Over … 
New Myth, Toonz Ent. Help Launch Epiphany, A $200 Million … 
Amazon Orders Cop Drama Pilot Based On Michael … 
CBS is going backwards to try to take its legal battle with Dish Network forward. The network today filed paperwork (read it here) in federal court in the hopes of pursuing new fraudulent concealment and inducement counterclaims against Dish and its AutoHop service. CBS says Tuesday that it would have never signed a January 2012 Retransmission Agreement with Dish if it had known the broadcast satellite provider intended to introduce the ad-skipping AutoHop feature to its subscribers later in the year. In fact, the network includes emails from its execs to Dish during the late 2011 negotiations stating that CBS was not “looking to have this arrangement include new businesses that DISH may choose to enter into in the future, whether they be Netflix-like businesses, new mobile services, or other new platforms.” By Dish not saying anything about the proposed Autohop feature after this exchange, CBS says the company committed deceit.
“If DISH had requested from CBS the right to offer its subscribers the programming carried through the CBS Broadcast Signal with all commercials automatically removed from what DISH subscribers would see, that would have fundamentally altered the basic economics and nature of the Retransmission Agreement. Indeed, at the time the Retransmission Agreement was negotiated, DISH knew that CBS would not have been willing to enter into the Retransmission Agreement if CBS had been aware that DISH would attempt to use its limited access to the CBS Broadcast Signal as a vehicle for offering CBS’s primetime programming to DISH subscribers on an on-demand, commercial-free basis,” says the 101-page Amended Counterclaims.
Related: CNET Media Writer Resigns After CBS Bars Award For Dish Network DVD
Introduced in May by Dish, AutoHop allows subscribers to leap past commercials in programs that have been recorded off network TV the day before. CBS’ filing is in the case that Dish put in front of New York federal court in May as it sought a judgment on whether its ad-skipping feature is legal. Fox, CBS and NBC all filed copyright infringement suits against the satcaster soon afterwards. Fox is currently appealing the denial of its request for a preliminary injunction against Dish by a federal judge in California in early November last year.
Deadline's Dominic Patten - tip him here.
Loading ...
CBS’s attempts will be futile. Just like the studios that fought the VCR, like the music industry that fought both cassettes and digital downloads, ad nauseum. What’s next, Les? Gonna go after the companies that manufacture remote controlsand DVR’s? Those can change channels from your network’s offerings, and zip by commercials, too.
CBS needs to eneter into the world of reality. Do they even know what the product is? The hopper does not automatically delete the commercials. It gives you the option of skipping over the commercials but not until the next day. When you choose a recording to watch, you get the option of watching the commercials are skipping the commercials. You can watch the commercials if you so choose. There is nothing automatic about it. Most people that record a program and watch it later fast forwards through the commercials anyway. Dish just happens to offer the service so you can put down the remote. Or do the execs at CBS live in a fantasy world and believe that people don’t do not already do that already?
Moonves is in fantasy land like you said, after the debacle with C-Net, he just doesn’t get it. They have lost all touch with reality.
Wait, skip past commercials? Why on earth would viewers do that? Oh yeah, to watch the program on your network. At least they are watching your programs! Could be worse. However, I’m surprised the VCR lasted as long as it did, because you could record a program and fast forward past the commercials back then too… Way back in the dark days of the 1990′s. Did CBS sue back then too? This is CBS covering its ass for their advertisers and investors. They simply need to say “we tried” and show best efforts. Will Dish drop CBS? No likely. CBS pull its channels, probably not. A lot of noise over nothing… Just a bunch of lawyers making fat pay days about something that can’t be stopped: progress. I wish I could fast forward to the end of this dramedy.
First Les Moonves silences Cnet journalists over giving Dish an award, (which goes against freedom of speech) now he wants to force viewers to watch his adds, which he slaps over the actual show itself, making the shows unwatchable. By the way, no matter what Les Moonves’s pals over at Neilson say, WE DO NOT WATCH THE ADDS.
With the commercials getting so incredibly insulting. Example: “You Don’t Want your Dr. doing your job so why do his?”). This suggests that you can’t trust yourself, your Mother, Father, Wife to give you medication for, say, a cough. I find that truely insulting.
With so many Ads following this same kind of insanity (Two for me, None for you is another that comes to mind), how can they expect us to watch this drivvel?
If I am going to watch TV, it will not be to watch Ads that waste my time. Hey, I have better ways to waste my time (like playing games on the PC).