Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen defended the company’s "AutoHop" technology, which allows viewers to skip ads, describing the technology as a way to protect children from ads for fast food and alcohol, reports Reuters.
Ergen made the comments in written testimony for a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing in Washington today, according to the story. The ad-skipping service has been the target of lawsuits filed by broadcast networks.
"This means allowing your kids to watch TV doesn’t have to mean that they have no choice but to see commercials for junk food and alcohol," Ergen wrote, according to the piece.
Ergen, who rarely speaks in public, described the service as "legally accepted" and said it improves on products already available that allow ad skipping.
Why don’t CBS, FOX, and NBC execs want consumers to enjoy commercial-free TV? It’s what we want! I’m a customer and employee of Dish, and I think AutoHop is great because you can easily watch commercial-free TV. A well known consumer advocacy group, Public Knowledge, agrees that people should have the right to control how they watch TV. They’re taking a stand for consumers by creating a petition that tells CBS, FOX, and NBC media to keep their hands out of your living room and DVR. Sign their petition to keep control of how you watch TV http://bit.ly/KigXAn