Questions for Mark Cuban?

[Mcuban]

Ilove watching the NHL on HDNet. I was wondering if you had plans to broadcast other pro leagues or expand your college basketball and football coverage.

We are always exploring options, but we wont be a sports network. We want to excel at original programming.

We plan on continuing with the NHL for a long time because we think hockey benefits the most from HD, and HDNet does hockey the best

m

 

[korsjs]

mr cuban,

glad to have you here and thanks for taking time to answer questions.

 

[Mcuban]

Mark, I know there has been rumors flying around with HD lite and HD Net on dish network.. If you can disclose this do you specifically have it in your contract for dish to carry hd net and hd net movies at 1920 x 1080 I on its own transponder? IF so that is a great move as all of us want our programming in its native format.

Also, is there any plans to launch any new hd channels from HD Net?

No plans for another net at this time.

And we do have some controls in our contracts, but the reality is, that at this early point in the game, it would be a huge mistake not to let our partners experiment with the technology they are using.

I want things figured out when there are millions of subs, not when there are tens of millions of subs. Thats just part of early adoption

Personally, I subscribe to Direct at home, and am getting Dish setup. On my system, it looks pretty damn good

 

[Mcuban]

Mark,
Are HDnet and HDnet Movies suppssed to be carried unencrypted on cable providers? I had read that it was on other sites and I know some cable companies are not scrambling them and some are (supposedly against the agreement). Being that the internet is full of mis information and of course my cable company will tell me the latter, it would be nice to get info from the source for once.
Thanks and welcome to satguys!

Its up to the carrier. We dont have a problem if it isnt, but if our partner wants to encrypt it because its more hassle to not encrypt only 2 channels, we are ok with that as well

m

 

[Mcuban]

Just another example of how Directv is ruining your channel. The PQ is the worst is has ever been. I didn't realize how badly it looked until I started watching the rose parade. I was switching between ABC network broadcast and HDnet and i couldn't watch it on HDnet. HDnet used to be my first stop when watching tv. Is there anything you can do to convince D* that people want true HD?

Honestly, Im pretty tired of this HD Lite stuff. Ifyou want true HD, go buy a D5 playback device or an HDCam playback device (low end is about 14k). Then we will be happy to sell you HDCam or D5 versions of our content. You supply the tapes and we will charge you 30 bucks to dupe our shows.

then you will have real HD.

Until then, as I stated on another post, there are going to be experiments done with codecs, encoding, security, bandwidth optimization and the settings of each , uniquely and in combination.

There is going to be variability on movies not shot in HD and even some in those that are.

There is as much variability in picture quality based on the display device you are using as in the settings on the carrier side.

For the HD forums, where people like to show how "in the know" they think they are, its like the topic of the moment.

Get over it. ATSC isnt true HD. The variability in distribution quality is based on dozens of variables. If you put 20 different displays in a room using a single feed from any HD provider, on any HD network, you are going to see variances in pq

this is officially the last "hdlite" response i will offer

 

[Mcuban]

Mark,
I was wondering if there is ever any chance that you & Comcast would come to an agreement for carriage? I have read that there has been some "bad blood" between your two companies. Is it to a point that negoiations between the two of you are over for good?
Thanks,
Sparkman (Mark)

We continue to have discussions with Comcast. There is no bad blood at all. Please call Comcast , ask for your local GM, tell them you are pissed they dont have HDNet and HDNet Movies. Get everyone in your neighborhood to do the same.

The more they hear it, the faster it happens

m

 

[voyagerbob]

Welcome and thanks for the great programming on HD NET. Any chance you may get WWE HD programming on HD NET?

 

[mdonnelly]

Honestly, Im pretty tired of this HD Lite stuff. Ifyou want true HD, go buy a D5 playback device or an HDCam playback device (low end is about 14k). Then we will be happy to sell you HDCam or D5 versions of our content. You supply the tapes and we will charge you 30 bucks to dupe our shows.
then you will have real HD.
Until then, as I stated on another post, there are going to be experiments done with codecs, encoding, security, bandwidth optimization and the settings of each , uniquely and in combination.
There is going to be variability on movies not shot in HD and even some in those that are.
There is as much variability in picture quality based on the display device you are using as in the settings on the carrier side.
For the HD forums, where people like to show how "in the know" they think they are, its like the topic of the moment.
Get over it. ATSC isnt true HD. The variability in distribution quality is based on dozens of variables. If you put 20 different displays in a room using a single feed from any HD provider, on any HD network, you are going to see variances in pq
this is officially the last "hdlite" response i will offer

Thanks for the candid, intelligent answer. But, now you're going to be on Gary's s**t list.

 

[shappyss]

I didn't mean to bombard you with HDlight comments. Sorry about my comments and thank you for taking your time to answer our questions.
Thanks for the great programming!

 

[goaliebob99]

Welcome and thanks for the great programming on HD NET. Any chance you may get WWE HD programming on HD NET?

Now that would be totally Awsome to see

 

[tawhite]

WWE? Is that the fake wrestling crap? You can flush that stuff.

Now, extreme cage fighting on Friday nights on HDNet, that is awesome. We need more of that!

 

[Ilya]

Guys, please keep this thread in a question-answer format.
Everyone's opinions are very important too, but we don't want to see 34,000 opinions about each asked question in this thread, do we?

For comments and discussion please use the following thread: Comments about Mark Cuban Answers

 

[Sean Mota]

Mark,

Thanks for taking the time to answer the programming questions. I loved HDnet/HDnet Movies. I love the original programming and the movies. Are you planning on bringing new episodes of "Young and Beautiful and Trying to make it in Hollywood". I thought the show was excellent and spectacular to see those girls.

 

[drsiebling]

Mark,

As a fellow Dallasite, it makes me proud to see the amazing content that you have offered the HD world. HDNet is the Gold Standard of all HD channels currently broadcasting. How do you expect that your new venture into releasing movies into the theatres and on HDNet at the same time will effect other Hollywood studios and their willingness to venture into supporting emerging HD delivery methods? Do you think the days of the movie theatre are numbered?

thanks!

-BW

 

[sonnyboy11]

Mark,

I sent you an email about your great coverage of the NHL on HDNET this past week. Thanks for responding back to me. Pretty classy for a CEO to take time out like that for the customer.

I need to go look through this thread because I am sure this has been asked- but my question is this:

Will you have any say in preventing the down-rezzing of your HDNET and HDNET Movies channels if providers try to do it? I have Dish Network and they have recently lowered the resolution of some of their HD content. This is a disturbing trend and I think the main reason it is happening is because many CEOs and executives in general do not understand what it is or why it is being allowed to happen.

Thanks!

 

[BobMurdoch]

Kudos on the Smallville deal. I never watched the show originally, and started watching since it was in HD. Wow, what a great pickup by you guys (as opposed to "dead" shows with too few shows to get syndicated through normal SD channels....) Smallville's surprising success in a tough timeslot may be partially due to your introduction of the show to those who missed it the first time and got hooked.

I would love if you could swing more deals like this for SciFi shows. Odyssey 5 was good, but we need fresh blood. Birds of Prey (the defunct WB series from 2 years ago) would be cheap to pick up and would look great. New and old anime like Ghost in the Shell or Star Blazers would look amazing and might be available cheap as there isn't a huge market for them.....

Any other current shows coming that you can comment on?

 

[korsjs]

Will you have any say in preventing the down-rezzing of your HDNET and HDNET Movies channels if providers try to do it? I have Dish Network and they have recently lowered the resolution of some of their HD content. This is a disturbing trend and I think the main reason it is happening is because many CEOs and executives in general do not understand what it is or why it is being allowed to happen.
Thanks!

he did answer this.

 

[CWS_kahuna]

Welcome Mark it will be great to hear more about the future of HDnet. I am a big fan of the channels.

Thanks

 

[John Kotches]

Mark,

Thanks for joining the crazy folks here at Satellite Guys

Have you procured broadcast rights for the excellent 2929 Entertainment films on HDNet movies? Generally speaking, HDNet movies demonstrates better picture quality than the mainstream movie channels so being able to see films such as Good Night and Good Luck and The Jacket in higher PQ than was offered on the mainstream channels would be (pardon the pun) a godsend.

I would imagine that the broadcast rights for these general release films are a seperately negotiated item and not something that HDNet movies gets as a freebie.

Best,

 

[herdfan]

Hey Mark,

I used to own a Dairy Queen.

Anyway, can you buy D* and throw the current clowns out? They are doing everything they can to screw up a good thing. Its like letting NBA refs and David Stern run HDNet.