Cuban Is Back to the Future

Filed in archive Commentary , People on September 11, 2006

Photo from CNET

CNET posted an interview with Mark Cuban, founder of HDNET and owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Mark spoke on the future of digital entertainment and HD video.

His cogent observations represent a trip "Back to the Future" to the early 90s when dialup Internet access speeds were so slow that the US Postal Service made more sense to consumers than waiting for large digital downloads or trying to view postage stamp-sized streamed videos.

There is DSL and cable modem broadband today. That's fine for music and 1GB normal video. But it's not for HD movies that are a magnitude larger in file size and time to download. Cuban foresees the shipping of inexpensive multi-terabyte hard drives that contain libraries of video and music. It's Netflix distribution digital style.

I agree. I wrote about the increasing use of hard drives for content distribution in my industry report on Podcasting.

Piracy is less of an issue. Centalized distribution bodes well for media publishers who can license and control what's on the hard drives. Unauthorized movie file sharing and copying would continue but would be practical for only smaller, low resolution versions.