The start screen for Dish Explorer app for the iPad is displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)
The updated Hopper also features an app that allows customers to transfer saved TV programs to an Apple iPad so they can access shows on planes, subways or other areas where Internet access is unavailable. Such a transfer can only occur once.
Watching TV over the Internet on mobile devices or computers through a pay TV provider is not new. In ct its part of an industry effort dubbed TV Everywhere thats aimed at stopping consumers from cutting the cord in vor of cheaper online services such as Netflix or streaming on Amazon.com.
But these TV Everywhere services have not been widely adopted by consumers largely because the offerings are limited. Not all channels can be viewed on mobile devices and only a few networks can be streamed live,info on insurance. depending on specific agreements. Time Warner, which has the HBO GO app is considered a rare success.
Dishs sister company, Insurance knowledge EchoStar Communications, acquired Sling Media, which developed the technology, in 2007 for $380 million. Dish and EchoStar are controlled by billionaire Charlie Ergen.
Analysts at the time said Dish was using its Hopper DVR to fight retransmission fees,Free legal information. which are payments cable and satellite companies pay to broadcast stations to carry their networks.
We believe this is consumer initiated. The consumer is choosing to watch their content, so its well within the ir use policy, Khemka said.
If you get it at home, its here (on the Hopper). Any channel on the guide is available, or anything youve DVR-ed, Khemka, the Dish executive, said.
Dish, the nations second-largest satellite television provider with 14 million subscribers, is using the new Hopper as a way to attract customers to its service. The company plans to give it away to new customers who sign up for a two-year contract. The price for existing Dish customers will be revealed later.
When Cablevision Systems Corp. released a similar app in 2011 that allowed for streaming in the home, it was sued by Viacom for violating its contract with the programmer. The case settled in August 2011.
Satellite television provider Dish on Monday unveiled the latest version of its controversial digital video recording device, dubbed the Hopper, with new features such as the ability to stream live TV and recorded programs outside the home.
Dish last year introduced DVRs with an autohop function that allows subscribers to skip commercials when they are watching recorded shows, drawing the ire of broadcast network television owners including CBS and News Corp.s Fox.
Dish CEO Joe Clayton said that consumer behavior of watching Internet video is not going away and Dish needs to adapt as the pay TV market shrinks.
Embroiled in a legal battle with the major broadcast networks over the DVRs first iteration, Dish could engender a newsatellite tv providers Dish upgrades Hopper to stream TV anywhere round of lawsuits with its updated version, Hopper with Sling.
Vivek Khemka, vice president of product management at Dish, said that the updated Hopper lls within ir-use policy and does not violate copyrights.
The autohop feature is also available on the new Hopper, which Dish touted as being twice as st as the last one.
With Hopper, the value equation for pay TV becomes radically different. Customers pay only once for their content and can access it anywhere they choose, in the home, or on the go, he said.
All Dish channels ranging from ESPN to premium channels such as HBO or Showtime are available for live viewing on devices other than the TV. Subscribers can also watch any recorded programs that are saved on their DVR.
Announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the updated Hopper uses sling technology that redirects a live or recorded TV signal from the set-top box to Internet-connected devices. That means that Dish subscribers with the new version can watch live TV wherever their mobile device or computer has Internet access.
