DISH NETWORK’S ERGEN DEFENDS AD-SKIPPING DVR

DISH Network Chairman Charlie Ergen has indicated that his company introduced its Hopper ad-skipping DVR in an effort to level the playing field between traditional TV and Internet TV. In an interview with today’s (Friday) Wall Street Journal, Ergen said said that the advent of cheap or free Internet video threatens the pay-TV ecosystem and that the networks that are taking legal action against him are partially to blame for the threat from Internet video since they themselves offer free access to shows online, with fewer commercials than are aired on TV. The networks’ arguments against Hopper are therefore “disingenuous,” he said. Ergen indicated that he’s still trying to figure out a fair business model in which the Hopper technology can be beneficial to tall concerned. “If the ad is skipped, the consumer likes it, but it’s not necessarily good for me and it’s not necessarily good for the broadcaster because I’m in the same ecosystem as him,” he said. “So we have to figure out how the broadcaster benefits, we benefit and the consumer continues to feel like he gets a fair deal.”