Random Question

[RTCDude]

A random question for the new year. Does anyone know how the Hopper got it’s name of “Hopper?

 

[Pepper]

The clue is in the logo. Kangaroos hop, so you could call them a Hopper. A baby kangaroo is called a Joey. Related to Kangaroos, but slightly different, is the Wallaby which you could call a Wally.

The Hopper hops too, over commercials. That was its defining feature back in the day.

That's the how. More interesting would be why they chose to name their products after Australian marsupials.

 

[charlesrshell]

The clue is in the logo. Kangaroos hop, so you could call them a Hopper. A baby kangaroo is called a Joey. Related to Kangaroos, but slightly different, is the Wallaby which you could call a Wally.

The Hopper hops too, over commercials. That was its defining feature back in the day.

That's the how. More interesting would be why they chose to name their products after Australian marsupials.

Did Charlie pick the names?

 

[telstar_1]

I suspect it was inspired simply by their decision to do autoskip in that generation of rx's. Which in itself seems to have been inspired out of the long-running battles between DiSH and the broadcast nets/affils over distant locals, retrans fees, etc. I suspect they liked the idea of sticking it to them by auto-pulling all their content to hard drive and denying them ad eyeballs through autoskipping commercials when viewed with some at least small amount of time delay. Thus the "hopper"- it will hop right over those ads...Of course this then ticked off the nets worse than ever, resulting ultimately in "autohop" being pushed out to only be available starting the next day.

A cute 'roo hopping over all those detested ads. And so then of course adjacent products would also get Aussie nomenclature.

 

[RTCDude]

The clue is in the logo. Kangaroos hop, so you could call them a Hopper. A baby kangaroo is called a Joey. Related to Kangaroos, but slightly different, is the Wallaby which you could call a Wally.

The Hopper hops too, over commercials. That was its defining feature back in the day.

That's the how. More interesting would be why they chose to name their products after Australian marsupials.

Yes, I understand the implications of the name. But there could have been alternatives.

For example, they could have use “Skipper”. That name would have been more directly to the point of skipping commercials. Or how about “Spider” for an obscure MOCA reference. I’m sure we could come up with more hinting names.

So as you say, what made their crack marketing team pick Australian marsupials. It’s always seemed as a bit of a goofy choice.

 

[NYDutch]

Yes, I understand the implications of the name. But there could have been alternatives.

For example, they could have use “Skipper”. That name would have been more directly to the point of skipping commercials. Or how about “Spider” for an obscure MOCA reference. I’m sure we could come up with more hinting names.

So as you say, what made their crack marketing team pick Australian marsupials. It’s always seemed as a bit of a goofy choice.

They may have had the help of an outside marketing company that ran focus groups, etc., before deciding.

 

[waylew]

For example, they could have use “Skipper”.

Would that have resulted in Gilligans,Mary anns and Gingers ?

 

[RTCDude]

Would that have resulted in Gilligans,Mary anns and Gingers ?

Maybe “a three hour tour” would be how long it would take for the skip-forward/backward buttons to start working.

 

[Jim S.]

A three-hour tour would be the boot sequence.

 

[telstar_1]

Any ad co. would have advised them to look to animals. Look at all of the big ad campaigns; geico, aflac, etc. Animals capture human attn.

 

[navychop]

Three hours? Alone with Mary Ann?………

 

[Ganthet]

The Hopper was Dish's first whole-home DVR. Its selling point was being able to start watching a show in one room and then "hop" to another room.

It was originally named the XIP 813 (Article here) Somewhere along the way the marketing dept came up with the Hopper name and they came up with the catchy commercials with the Boston guys yelling "Hopper!" They worked pretty well too.

 

[telstar_1]

Hm, would never have guessed that. Hop to another room. I was actually at the time wanting them to come with a whole-house DVR, as I was already doing that with their ViPs in some cases by putting 4 receivers in a single place and sending their modulated outputs over the house coax, so there didn't have to be a box at every TV cluttering up. Like what was the UHF remote for, anyway? Something to reduce the # of boxes. Even moreso for commercial installs. So they announce this hopper and that it has this large # of tuners, but then they drop on us that in add'n to this "whole house" box, you have to put a client box at every TV. Thanx a bunch. That's really when I just got out.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Did Charlie pick the names?

No Joe Clayton did.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I suspect it was inspired simply by their decision to do autoskip in that generation of rx's.

Autohop did not come out for a few years after the Hopper came out. If I remember correctly it was the Hopper 2 that first supported it.

 

[RTCDude]

No Joe Clayton did.

Who is that?

 

[RTCDude]

The Hopper was Dish's first whole-home DVR. Its selling point was being able to start watching a show in one room and then "hop" to another room.

It was originally named the XIP 813 (Article here) Somewhere along the way the marketing dept came up with the Hopper name and they came up with the catchy commercials with the Boston guys yelling "Hopper!" They worked pretty well too.

I know someone would have some real history. Thanks.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Who is that?

Former CEO of DISH Network. He passed away a few years ago unfortunately. After he left DISH he would still call or email me from time to time just to say hello and see how I was doing. Great guy who is missed.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmHFHQ4MyVU