The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a request by 21st Century Fox to stop Dish Network from selling its ad-skipping Autohop feature.
The Court held up a 2012 ruling that said Dish could keep selling the technology, which lets viewers automatically fast-forward through ads on recordings of primetime network broadcasts.
Fox had also argued that Autohop violates the terms of a Dish/21 Century Fox distribution contract, and this ruling does not close the door on that dispute, though it’s unknown if the media giant will continue down that path.
The ruling comes in the same month that CBS and other broadcasters were denied a re-hearing of a Federal court ruling favoring Aereo, which airs networks’ programming over the web without paying licensing fees.
Brief Take: The main takeaway from today’s ruling, which you can read in its entirety here, is that consumers have the right to record shows and fast-forward through ads, no matter the technology. This is a practice going back to the days of Betamax.
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