• by Wayne Friedman , May 10, 2012

Dish Network has created another new feature that won’t be making too many friends among TV advertisers.

The new feature, called the “Auto Hop,” expands the operations of the satellite TV distributor’s recently released “Hopper” DVR unit, which automatically records eight days or up to 100 hours of HD prime-time programming on ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC.

Auto Hop allows customers to automatically skip all commercials for most recorded HD programs, without consumers manually pressing any button on their remotes. Dish bluntly touts the new feature on its Web site, “Dish Created Commercial-Free TV.” 

"Viewers love to skip commercials," said Vivek Khemka, vice president of product management for Dish, in a press release. He adds: "With the Auto Hop capability of the Hopper, watching your favorite shows commercial-free is easier than ever before. It's a revolutionary development that no other company offers and it's something that sets Hopper above the competition."

Viewers can screen early-evening prime-time shows without commercials after 1 a.m. the next day. Auto Hop does not work for live broadcasts.

Dish already has a feature that skips commercials in 30-second increments. Other companies such as DirecTV and TiVo DVR units have disabled this function on some of their machines.

TV networks have looked to go further in the recent past -- to get DVR manufacturers/TV distributors to disable the “fast forwarding” function of some machines. Depending on estimates, consumers with DVR machines fast-forward through 60% to 85% of TV commercials.

Some analysts suggest “Auto Hop” makes it easier for what consumers already do –- the “manual” process of fast-forwarding. Other analysts wonder whether TV networks might now look to reconfigure carriage/retransmission agreements that would take into account the new Auto Hop feature.