Audio Video News

Journalists and television industry analysts have stated from the outset that three types of content would drive high definition television: adult fare, blockbuster movies, and sports.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has made this last category his mantra for success in the burgeoning market for HD programming. HDNet, his sports-based startup, offers 16 hours of daily broadcasts, some of it mainstream programming such as National Hockey League games and Major League Baseball. During the recent Winter Olympics, HDNet offered incredible views of the competition from Salt Lake City—although delayed by 24 hours so as not to tread on NBC's turf. HDNet's Winter Olympics programming was produced with the cooperation of NBC, using NBC announcers.

HDNet has also ventured where the major networks fear to go, offering relatively obscure events (women's weightlifting championships, anyone?) which become incredibly compelling when seen in high definition. Much HDNet fare has less than universal appeal, and the startup has yet to turn a profit. Cuban, however, is in it for the long haul, and has made sweetheart deals with companies like News Corporation, whose Fox Sports Network is making room for HDNet at its NHL and MLB broadcasts. Hughes Electronics Corporation's DirecTV has also signed on to make HDNet's crystal-clear sports shows available to its almost 11 million subscribers. Fox has options to buy an undisclosed share of HDNet, Cuban recently revealed.

Cuban has stated that he could easily spend $100 million on new programming without "blinking an eye" to land new viewers. Like Ted Turner, who in the 1970s parlayed a local UHF station's satellite feed into a telecommunications giant, Cuban is in a perfect position to take advantage of the new technology. Prices continue to drop on digital televisions, and each new convert who joins the HD fold gets hooked on HDNet sports. At this point, amazingly, he's the only one in the HD sports arena. It's a "big old hole to drive a truck through in terms of opportunity," he recently told the Wall Street Journal.