Fox, Dish Settle Over Ad-Skipping AutoHop Function

21st Century Fox -- the last of three major media companies with legal proceedings against Dish’s automated TV commercial-skipping function, AutoHop -- has settled with the satellite pay TV provider.
The Fox agreement -- similar to other media companies’ settlement deal points -- means Dish will disable AutoHop on its Hopper set-top box unit for the first seven days after a TV episode’s original airing.
In a statement, the companies says: "Fox Networks Group and Dish Network L.L.C. have reached an agreement resulting in the dismissal of all pending litigation between the two companies, including disputes over Slingbox technology and the AutoHop, PrimeTime Anytime and Transfers features."

Analysts say this gives TV networks that sell commercial time on the shows the ability to maintain their traditional monetization of its TV airings with marketers through its commercial ratings guarantees, C3 or C7 -- the average commercial rating plus three days or seven days of time-shifted viewing.

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As part of the Fox-Dish deal, disputes over Slingbox technology, which allows programs to be viewed on a wide range of mobile devices, have also been resolved.

In 2012, Fox, Disney and CBS Corp. sued Dish in an effort to stop its customers’ ability to mass-skip prime-time TV commercials.  AutoHop does this for programming of four major broadcast networks.

Disney settled with Dish in February 2014 -- part of its deal that put ESPN on SlingTV. In its deal, Dish disables AutoHop for three days following a show’s initial airing.

Later than year, December 2014, CBS also settled with Dish as part of its carriage deals with Showtime and CBS Sports. Like Fox, in its deal, Dish disables AutoHop for seven days following a show’s initial airing.

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