News and Reviews....

Dish Network DVR Shutdown    May 2010

Dish Network faces a DVR shutdown if a court sides with TIVO in a patent-infrigement case. The alternative would be to pay TIVO licensing fees. This is all happening at the same time that DISH NETWORK has reported a 26% drop in first quarter net income. Now the company might have to shut down millions of digital video recorders in dispute with TIVO. The actual number might be as high as 7.3 million with a cost to replace and shut down the boxes at close to $3 billion.

TIVO sued Dish in 2004 for the infringement of its real-time TV pausing and rewinding features. Dish has asked for a review of the case but that review as reported as unlikely. The kicker is that the federal judge would have to decide whether a redesigned software for the Dish DVR would still infringe on the TIVO patents. Dish could also agree to pay TIVO a monthly fee of $2 - $3 per subscriber to settle the case but is viewed as unlikely. 

Past Articles on Subject:

Dish - Direct TV Merger    November 2001