yes. the entire broadcast is protected by copyright. they have for many years made this very noticeable announcements prior to sports programs and others
"this programming is the property of XXXXXX. the broadcast– either in part or in its entirety -- may not be retransmitted, reproduced or rebroadcast without the expressed consent of blah blah blah"
they are going to argue that the hopper is doing the job of rebroadcasting the program without the consent of the studio/owner etc
here is some legal opinion
http://chart.copyrightdata.com/c15B.html
while in the most cases it may be precedent that cable and satellite providers arent infringing re-broadcasts altering the broadcast will not pass the legal test.