DISH MAY PROVIDE TV CHANNELS ONLINE

Satellite may not be the only way DISH Network plans to deliver content to consumers in the future. It is now considering doing so via the Internet, according to AllThingsD.com columnist Peter Kafka. DISH is planning to employ the settop box developed by Roku, a company in which it has secretly invested, Kafka reported, citing […]

REPORT: DISH TO OFFER HIGH-SPEED INTERNET SERVICE

For years, satellite services have been held back by a significant handicap in their competition with cable providers: they have been unable to offer customers high-speed Internet services. That may be about to change. According to published reports, DISH Network plans to launch its own satellite-based broadband service by the end of the year using […]

THREE NETWORKS SUE DISH OVER HOPPER

As expected, DISH Network was hit with lawsuits by NBC, Fox and CBS on Thursday over its Hopper DVR that allows users to skip and erase commercials automatically. (ABC said that it is monitoring the situation.) In its statement, CBS said, “This service takes existing network content and modifies it in a manner that is […]

DISH CLASHES WITH NETWORKS OVER AD-SKIPPING DVR

Satellite-TV operator DISH appears unfazed by angry comments from TV network executives about its plans to roll out a new DVR, dubbed the Hopper, from Echostar that allows users to skip commercials automatically. DISH CEO Joe Clayton has told the New York Post that the company plans to triple its marketing budget for TV, radio, […]

NEW DVR AUTOMATICALLY SKIPS COMMERCIALS

In the past, television networks and advertisers have often shrugged off discussion about how DVR users are fast-forwarding through commercials by rationalizing that at least those viewers get a glimpse of the commercials and are not taking a bathroom break, or texting, or checking their email instead; they have to be sitting in front of […]

NEW DVR IS A HALF-INCH DEEP

Echostar, the former corporate parent of DISH Network, which it spun off in 2007, thereby becoming solely a technology company, today (Thursday) introduced a new DVR in the U.K., the Ultra Slim Box HDT-610R, that is just a half-inch deep. The DVR is intended for use with Britain’s Freeview system and with several on-demand including […]

TIVO, DISH SETTLE LAWSUITS

Acknowledging that TiVo’s legal strategy of enforcing its DVR patents was “formidable,” satellite TV provider DISH said today (Monday) that it had reached a settlement with DISH over all remaining litigation. As part of the settlement, DISH and corporate sibling Echostar Communications will pay TiVo $500 million — $300 million now, the remainder in six […]

TIVO SHARES SOAR ON COURT VICTORY OVER DISH

Shares of TiVo rose as high as 51 percent on Wednesday after a federal appeals court upheld a lower court decision that satellite broadcaster DISH Network and its parent, EchoStar Communications had infringed on TiVo’s DVR patents. It ordered DISH to disable the infringing DVRs. DISH and EchoStar later issued a statement saying that they […]

PATENT OFFICE REJECTS TWO KEY TIVO CLAIMS

In a surprise ruling on Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) rejected TiVo’s claims to two patents that form much of the basis of TiVo’s lawsuit against DISH/Echostar. TiVo had claimed that the software in DISH’s digital video recorders (DVRs) had infringed on those patents, and its claim had been upheld by lower […]