HDNet's 'Wow TV' message - Post Script - high definition sports programming - Brief Article - Editorial

Post, June, 2002 by Marc Loftus

I've gotta tell you, as a sports fan, I'm enjoying keeping tabs on what high definition maverick Mark Cuban and his TV network HDNet are up to. It seems every month or so the network announces plans for broadcasting more live high definition sports programming. In February, it was the Winter

Olympics from Salt Lake City. A few weeks later came news about the network's agreement with Major League Baseball to broadcast 80 regular-season games in HD. And just recently, the network teamed up with NBC to deliver horseracing's Triple Crown. Add to the mix Arena Football League games and Cuban's own Dallas Mavericks NBA team, and there's a promising slate of programming to choose from.

I caught HDNet's broadcast of the Olympics' opening ceremonies on my brother's 65-inch, HDready Mitsubishi set [BIG!] delivered via DSS. Lots of colorful international flags, ice skating and the Dixie Chicks -- pretty cool. Most interesting were the commercial breaks, or notably, the lack of. While NBC'S standard definition broadcast took commercial time outs, the HDNet broadcast cut to.. .more HD content. In the Olympics' case, it was dramatic helicopter footage over Utah's snow-topped mountains. And it went on and on -- miles of it -- for the entire break!

So, why not upconvert commercials -- even local ones -- to fill space and generate revenue? That's not what HDNet is about, says Mark Cuban.

"Right now our message is 'Wow TV,"' he explains. "The differentiation in this case isn't volume or quantity, the differentiation is eye candy!." HDNet has adopted I 080i. The network has two Sony HDCAM-based broadcast trucks and promises only native HD broadcasts. "It's I 080i only," Cuban states. "No upconverts. We'll [transfer] from 35mm and we'll do original high def, and that's it. You are not going to see something done on tape and converted!'

And HDNet isn't just sports programming. He points to HDNet World Report, which examines the current conflict in the Middle East with timely reports from Peter Arnett. "We are sending [Peter] around the world to hot spots. The whole key is to demonstrate the differences that high def offers: with sports, the 16-by-9 aspect ratio; with news, seeing a war zone in high def is a whole lot different than seeing it in standard definition."

For Post's complete in-depth interview with Mark Cuban, check out our Web site, www.postrnagozine.com.