Score one for ad-skippers. A Los Angeles judge rejected Fox Broadcasting Company’s attempt to block a Dish Network feature that allows users to automatically skip commercials. The Dish AutoHop feature allows viewers to play back certain primetime programming recorded from networks ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox minus commercials. The feature was introduced to Dish customers earlier this year in conjunction with the company’s new high-definition DVR called the Hopper.

Fox filed suit to block Dish’s commercial-free transmission of the News Corp-owned network’s programs, claiming breach of contract and copyright infringement. Broadcasting companies claim the technology can irreparably harm the industry by reducing the amount advertisers are willing to pay. Networks rely on advertising revenue to cover the cost of production.

“Dish is marketing and benefitting from an unauthorized (video on demand) service that illegally copies Fox’s valuable programming,” Fox said in a statement.

Dish, however, argued that the technology only made it easier for customers to continue using their DRVs the same way they already do: Record programs and skip through commercials during playback. Dish claims no copyright violation occurs because the AutoHop feature does not alter the network’s broadcast signal—viewers have the option to skip over ads, but the commercials are not deleted.

U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee rejected Fox’s request for a preliminary injunction to block Dish’s technology, ruling the feature does not violate Dish and Fox’s Video-on-Demand provision of their 2010 RTC agreement. She added, however, that the technology likely violates the agreement in general, although Fox has not yet provided proof that its business has been harmed by the feature.

“Dish is gratified that the court has sided with consumer choice and control by rejecting Fox’s efforts to deny our customers access to PrimeTime Anytime and AutoHop,” Dish general counsel Stanton Dodge said in a statement. “The ruling underscores the U.S. Supreme Court’s ‘Betamax’ decision, with the court confirming a consumer’s right to enjoy television as they want, when they want, including the reasonable right to skip commercials, if they so choose.”

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