Dish is using the recent controversy over CNet’s CES “Best In Show” award its new Hopper with Sling DVR won but was then disqualified as a marketing tool. The service, which includes the AutoHop ad-skipping service via DVR playback, was awarded the top prize by the editors of CNET before they were overruled by corporate parent CBS who is suing Dish over Hopper.
Dish has bought full-page ads in several major newspapers to crow about the award it didn’t get and blast CBS. In the ad, which first appeared on Dish’s Web site, the company says “CBS will go to any lengths to keep you from enjoying ad-skipping technology – even censoring its own writers and throwing out their decision to name Hopper ‘Best In Show.’”
CNET media writer Greg Sandoval resigned as a result of CBS’ decision to bar Dish from getting the award.
In statement issued earlier this week, the network said it “has been consistent on this situation from the beginning” and called the decision “an isolated and unique incident” involving “a product that has been challenged as illegal” by CBS “and nearly every other major media company as well,” reported Deadline.com
RBR-TVBR observation: While we agree that AutoHop is wrong, DISH should have been given the award—it won it fair and square. The disqualification makes both CBS Corp. and CNet look bad. Can you blame Dish for bashing them here? Like Deadline.com notes, now Dish has been able to turn the debate about whether it’s ethical for a distributor whose service depends on programming to cut the source that makes it possible—advertising–to one about journalistic integrity. And CBS Corp. has a lot of journalists working for it.
