Commentary

Dish Network's 'Little Thing'

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, February 28, 2013

Maybe Dish Network's Hopper isn't such a big thing after all. At a Broadcasting & Cable conference, Adam Gaynor, director of advertising sales for Dish Network, discussed what Hopper -- the controversial device that can skip through huge chunks of prime-time broadcast TV commercials -- meant for potential Dish clients, TV advertisers,

"Yes, people were upset," he said, according to B&C. "When you speak to them and communicate with them, what we have to offer is a lot stronger than this little thing over here that's not really affecting our clients."

Little thing? Is that what the Hopper is? Maybe that's a long-term view. Right now it doesn't seem that way -- not even to Dish, which has a huge advertising campaign talking up the benefits of Hopper and skipping TV commercials.

For Dish, the broader potential big-revenue business could be selling TV commercials, lots of them. A head-scratching bargain, perhaps? "Hey TV advertisers, you might want to think about our new addressable advertising efforts because you know people are skipping a lot of commercials (wink, wink)."

Starcom MediaVest Group Exchange executives were indeed mightily upset with Dish, and told MediaPost so last year. Still, other media executives defended Dish, saying, in effect, "One thing doesn't have to do with the other."

So Dish Network's potential addressability and interactivity of TV commercials has nothing to do with Dish's ability to give consumers the ability to skip prime0time commercials in mass. Consumers, after all, already skip commercials. Dish Network, as is its claim, didn't invent consumers’ ability to skip commercials.

Dish Networks believes TV networks are having a knee-jerk reaction to all of this.

Future new TV advertising platforms are still a small part of the business but could potentially grow into something big for Dish Network, and seemingly for a number of TV distributors -- cable operators, other satellite companies, and telco services. Even then, this will be only one part of a new-media formula for marketers.

Let”s say this: Some messaging, while good for Dish's big revenue base (consumers), sends out the wrong signal for Dish's small but potential big-revenue generators (TV advertisers).

Appearances can mean a lot -- especially to those who know about a crazy little thing called advertising.

2 comments about "Dish Network's 'Little Thing' ".

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Edmund Singleton from Winstion Communications, March 1, 2013 at 5:32 a.m.
Hell they are running promos during the program and during the breaks, there is a need for the hooper, I think...
Reply

Ed Weiner from Hudson Media Services, March 1, 2013 at 7:24 a.m.

The idea of the Hopper is very unique and somewhat bold for Dish, as the only commercials the Hopper skips is on the 4 broadcast networks. Dish advertising is sold only on Cable networks they make no money from the broadcast networks.

That adds up to opportunity to grow subs without having to take a revenue hit on ad sales.

While I think they are infringing on the broadcast networks rights and will likely spend tons of money on defending themselves in court, the strategy on the surface is indeed brilliant.