MERIDIAN (dpa-AFX) - DISH (DISH) said Friday that it filed a lawsuit in defense of its AutoHop commercial-skipping feature after threats from broadcasters and responded to subsequent suits filed against it late Thursday by CBS, FOX and NBC.
Dave Shull, senior vice president of Programming for DISH, said 'The lawsuits filed by the networks essentially argue that 'consumers must watch commercials.' We find that proposition absurd and profoundly anti-consumer.'
'Customers have been skipping commercials since the birth of the remote control, and the networks are arguing against that fact. Taken to the extreme, will the networks next ask consumers to stop changing channels?,' Dave Shull said.
'Collectively, the networks reap billions in retransmission fees -- fees that are reflected in subscribers' growing bills. For their money, consumers deserve to use content they pay for as they wish, ' Dave Shull noted.
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