Ad-skip genie well and truly out of the bottle, analyst asserts

July 12, 2012 - Even though DISH Network's introduction of an STB with an automatic ad-skipping feature has prompted a furious legal response, the function could become so popular with consumers that it may prove difficult to take away.

According to a research note by IHS Screen Digest, DISH's AutoHop feature in its Hopper set-top boxes — which will allow consumers to automatically skip ads during playback on a digital video recorder (DVR) when viewing broadcast network programming — may just be a ploy to cut retrans fees, but it could represent a fundamental threat to the advertising revenue that drives their business.