10 thoughts on “There goes the Hopper: Dish agrees to limit ad skipping in Disney deal”
I’m pretty sure a bunch of us called this… it ain’t their content and one way or another, the real owners will exert their will. The three day window is interesting, a new precedent for others to contemplate? Speaking of which, some NSFW thoughts on the Comcast merger: http://t.co/FEW0m6UnQN
This is bad. Dish went over the line and now has set the precedent that may result in disabling fast forwarding entirely. Just wait until the next go-round.
Just got an email from comcast that I am eligible for X1. Just spent an hour on the phone, talking to a variety of reps with the end result that we aren’t getting it because of:
1) we are in an association that provides basic cable
2) we need triple play to be eligible but it’s not available in our association
3) you can have x1 with double play but me and my supervisor don’t know how to enter it into the computer
Yes, all three were said on one call. Perfect timing to look into satellite again after a three year hiatus.
But then this. Not sure I’m interested in dish. Scared for what’s next. Comcast may saddle me with a dvr whose interface is from the Prodigy era but at least I can fast forward through commercials.
I think the 3-day window thing is interesting. If I thought there was even a chance that TiVo would implement it, I’d be cheering. But whatever, we all knew this was going to happen.
I guess the question is whether @Joseph has a point or not. Its not like this is a legal precedent. But I suppose you could ask whether in the future Disney could successfully negotiate that Comcast must implement mechanisms to block fast-forwarding on their DVRs for content that is less than 3 days old. I guess I could imagine that. Certainly it may be the default for cloud DVR deployments. Whether Comcast could deploy it on their existing archaic installed base of DVRs is another question.
I think Dish used the feature to negotiate better terms.
@Glenn, note it did say that this disabled automatic skipping of ads. The end-user can still manually fast forward through the ads as they still do on Tivo/Comcast/any other DVR.
Michael, the only issue is a) it opens the door for more restrictions in the future, and b) defeats a major selling point of the system in the first place.
Legally, couldn’t a hopper with an OTA dongle still use auto-hop if the signal was received via antenna?
Let’s just hope that Dish’s new deal allows them to offer packages to customers without pricey ESPN.
“Legally, couldn’t a hopper with an OTA dongle still use auto-hop if the signal was received via antenna?”
I don’t think “legally” is even remotely the operative issue here.
“Let’s just hope that Dish’s new deal allows them to offer packages to customers without pricey ESPN.”
I’d suggest the deal makes such a scenario significantly less likely.
Yeah, the legality is unknown and probably doesn’t matter… they’ll batter you with suits or, in DISH’s case retransmission considerations, until you’re no longer interested or solvent. See: ReplayTV
I’m pretty sure a bunch of us called this… it ain’t their content and one way or another, the real owners will exert their will. The three day window is interesting, a new precedent for others to contemplate? Speaking of which, some NSFW thoughts on the Comcast merger: http://t.co/FEW0m6UnQN
This is bad. Dish went over the line and now has set the precedent that may result in disabling fast forwarding entirely. Just wait until the next go-round.
Just got an email from comcast that I am eligible for X1. Just spent an hour on the phone, talking to a variety of reps with the end result that we aren’t getting it because of:
1) we are in an association that provides basic cable
2) we need triple play to be eligible but it’s not available in our association
3) you can have x1 with double play but me and my supervisor don’t know how to enter it into the computer
Yes, all three were said on one call. Perfect timing to look into satellite again after a three year hiatus.
But then this. Not sure I’m interested in dish. Scared for what’s next. Comcast may saddle me with a dvr whose interface is from the Prodigy era but at least I can fast forward through commercials.
I think the 3-day window thing is interesting. If I thought there was even a chance that TiVo would implement it, I’d be cheering. But whatever, we all knew this was going to happen.
I guess the question is whether @Joseph has a point or not. Its not like this is a legal precedent. But I suppose you could ask whether in the future Disney could successfully negotiate that Comcast must implement mechanisms to block fast-forwarding on their DVRs for content that is less than 3 days old. I guess I could imagine that. Certainly it may be the default for cloud DVR deployments. Whether Comcast could deploy it on their existing archaic installed base of DVRs is another question.
I think Dish used the feature to negotiate better terms.
@Glenn, note it did say that this disabled automatic skipping of ads. The end-user can still manually fast forward through the ads as they still do on Tivo/Comcast/any other DVR.
Michael, the only issue is a) it opens the door for more restrictions in the future, and b) defeats a major selling point of the system in the first place.
Legally, couldn’t a hopper with an OTA dongle still use auto-hop if the signal was received via antenna?
Let’s just hope that Dish’s new deal allows them to offer packages to customers without pricey ESPN.
“Legally, couldn’t a hopper with an OTA dongle still use auto-hop if the signal was received via antenna?”
I don’t think “legally” is even remotely the operative issue here.
“Let’s just hope that Dish’s new deal allows them to offer packages to customers without pricey ESPN.”
I’d suggest the deal makes such a scenario significantly less likely.
Yeah, the legality is unknown and probably doesn’t matter… they’ll batter you with suits or, in DISH’s case retransmission considerations, until you’re no longer interested or solvent. See: ReplayTV