Court Sides With Dish Over ABC in DVR Fight

Dish Network won a legal victory as a federal judge denied broadcaster ABC's request to shut down features of its "Hopper" digital-video recorder.

The decision comes as satellite TV operator Dish is in negotiations with ABC-parent Walt Disney about renewing the companies' carriage agreement, which expires at the end of this month. ABC's concerns about the Hopper are one of several tensions between the companies and could be a factor in those talks, analysts say. Broadcasters including ABC say the Hopper infringes on their copyrights. The service has a feature that automatically records all primetime broadcast programming and another that allows users to automatically skip over ads during that programming. Normal DVRs already pose a problem for TV programmers: many viewers fast-forward through commercials, threatening to reduce the value of that ad inventory for marketers. The Hopper makes it even easier for viewers to skip ads.