How broadcasters could have stopped Dish’s Hopper

Like a long-ago military invasion that didn’t infiltrate far enough to root out a hostile regime, broadcasters are reviewing their decade-old litigation with digital video recorder pioneer ReplayTV with some regret. If only they had gone all the way with that case …

The rumination stems from a new commercial-deleting feature called “Auto Hop” introduced last week by Dish Network for its Hopper DVRs. The feature essentially strips out commercial pods for shows recorded on the major broadcast TV networks. Once again, broadcasters are facing a DVR function that undermines their ad-supported business model. And once again, they seem poised to litigate over it. ”I think this is an attack on our eco system,” NBC Broadcasting chairman Ted Harbert said during a Monday conference call held in conjunction with NBC’s upfront presentation to advertisers. “I’m not for it.”