An executive war of words is escalating between Dish Network chief executive Joe Clayton and CBS boss Les Moonves over Dish’s service that lets customers skip over commercials, the main revenue source for broadcast networks such as CBS.
Speaking at an event Thursday in New York, Clayton took dead aim at Moonves, head of the No. 1-rated CBS broadcast network.
“Mr. Moonves feels that he can bully the consumers and that he can bully his programming partners. I don’t think that plays well,” he said.
Dish introduced a DVR called the Hopper this year with an “autohop” function that allows subscribers to skip commercials automatically when they are watching recorded shows.
Dish maintains that the product is something consumers desperately want. But CBS and its broadcasting brethren — Disney’s ABC, Comcast’s NBC and News Corp.’s Fox — argue that Dish is undermining the networks’ key source of revenue: advertising. In May, Douglas County-based Dish and the broadcast networks traded lawsuits over the technology.
Clayton’s comments came one day after Moonves threatened to remove CBS from Dish’s systems if it deploys the autohop feature on its Hopper.
Liana B. Baker, Reuters
