Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) has finally settled a four-year-old suit with Fox Broadcasting over features in the satellite TV company's Hopper DVR.
The two sides didn't release terms of the agreement or say whether it was part of a larger program rights deal. Fox did say that the commercial-skipping "AutoHop" feature on Hopper DVRs, which was key to the dispute, will not be usable on Fox shows until seven days after they air.
"Fox Networks Group and Dish Network LLC have reached an agreement resulting in the dismissal of all pending litigation between the two companies, including disputes over Slingbox technology and the AutoHop, PrimeTime Anytime and Transfers features," a joint statement said.
In 2012, Fox, Disney and CBS Corp. sued Dish in an effort to stop the operator from employing what they deemed was essentially an unlicensed video-on-demand service, which allowed customers to store massive quantities of their shows, pass them around to virtually any device, and skip the commercials in the process.
The settlement with Fox comes two years after Dish and Disney settled their legal dispute over Hopper features. That February 2014 settlement was part of a broad-reaching program rights deal that led to the launch of ESPN on Sling TV.
CBS Corp. settled its end of the Hopper complaint in December 2014 as part of a broadcast retransmission deal for CBS and carriage agreements for Showtime and CBS Sports.
For more:
- read this Variety story
- read this Hollywood Reporter story
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