Fox Sues Dish – Again

And again, Fox is suing Dish over the Hopper. After a failed lawsuit over the Hopper DVR’s ability to skip commercials, Fox is going after the network for delivering live and recorded TV to computers, phones, and tablets through the Internet. Fox argues that this feature breaches Fox’s licence agreement with Dish because Dish doesn’t have rights to Fox’s content on the Internet, unlike providers like iTunes and Amazon, who currently pay to offer commercial-free, on-demand versions of Fox programming over the Internet. This is just a battle in the ongoing war over how viewers will be able to access content in the age of readily accessible streaming – and the success or failure of the Hooper, as well as the legal battles surrounding it, could determine how this conflict resolves more broadly.