CBS, NBC and Fox head to court over Dish ad-skipping feature

On July 1, 1941, NBC interrupted its broadcast of a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game with a message from the Bulova watch company. It was the world's first television commercial, and it lasted 10 seconds. Ever since, TV networks have been jamming the airwaves with longer, louder and more insistent ads, and viewers have found increasingly sophisticated ways of avoiding them. Now a high-profile legal test could resolve this TV tug-of-war that has been building for decades.

Satellite TV provider Dish Network's new ad-skipping feature, AutoHop, enables subscribers to black out ads on programs they've saved on their digital video recorders. When activated, AutoHop turns the screen dark when a commercial arrives, then returns to the show a few seconds later. CBS, NBC and Fox have sued, saying the feature violates copyright laws and jeopardizes the financial foundation of the entire television industry. The AutoHop, which launched in May, is only available for use on shows on broadcast networks CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox and not on cable channels.