Charles Ergen

Dish Takes TV Networks to Court Over Ad Zapper

The battle between satellite and broadcast TV for viewers headed to U.

S. courts on Thursday when DISH Network sought to allow viewers to skip commercials at the touch of a button, something the four major broadcast networks are fighting tooth and nail.Dish Network Corp asked a Manhattan federal judge to declare that its "Auto Hop" feature does not infringe any copyright owned by the four major U.S. television networks: Walt Disney Co's ABC, CBS Corp's CBS, News Corp's Fox and Comcast Corp's NBC.Fox, meanwhile, filed its own lawsuit in a California federal court to stop Dish from transmitting its programs in a way that lets viewers watch them without commercial interruptions.Dish introduced a high-definition DVR called the Hopper earlier this year. With 14 million subscribers, it is the second-largest satellite TV provider in the United States behind DirecTV.TV networks are upset that Dish, led by billionaire chairman Charles Ergen, would introduce the "Auto Hop" feature that may well p...

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