Dish Chief: TV Needs to Change

Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen said a new ad-skipping feature that has infuriated major broadcast TV networks is a "competitively necessary" response to the explosion of cheap Internet video. That Web video threatens the pay-TV ecosystem, he added, and it is partly caused by the TV networks themselves. Ergen for the first time explained publicly his rationale for introducing the ad-skipping service called Auto Hop last month. The reclusive satellite TV pioneer said the broadcast networks, several of which have sued Dish over the ad-skipping feature and have refused to run Dish ads promoting a Dish digital video recorder, have been "more emotional than realistic." Ergen aims to force the networks to develop "more meaningful" ads, using, for example, demographic targeting of viewers. "Ultimately, broadcasters and advertisers have to change the way they do business or they run the risk of linear TV becoming obsolete," he said. "I think the conversation is going to go a lot faster because now there is a risk of inaction as opposed to no risk of inaction."