Dish Network Offers DVR That Removes Ads
Dish Network Corp. released a feature on its digital video recorder Thursday that automatically removes commercials from shows aired by major broadcast networks, threatening to seriously undercut billions of dollars in broadcast television advertising.
The feature, dubbed “Auto Hop,” is an advance on existing ad-skipping features on digital video recorders, which have been widely available for several years from cable and satellite operators. For existing DVRs, consumers have to manually press a fast forward button to speed through the commercial breaks. Timing the fast forward can be difficult and viewers can still see scenes from ads.
