But Cuban is the first to admit that no one has yet figured out the business of distributing audiovisual media over the Internet. The only thing to be sure of, he said, is that things will look very different in two or four years. He warned that the biggest players on the field today might not even exist in two years' time. RealNetworks Inc., for example, which makes the industry-leading RealMedia streaming media platform, could be bought by a larger company. Streaming media will be too important for RealNetworks to remain independent, Cuban insisted.
Distribution is everything.
Network television stations as we know them will disappear, he claimed, although local TV stations will thrive by reselling the downstream bandwidth available on the HDTV spectrum. But Cuban said he's not worried by the competition. Digital video recording service from Microsoft. ZDNet and ZDNet logo are registered trademarks of ZD Inc. Content originally published in Ziff Davis Media publications is the copyrighted property of Ziff Davis Media. Ziff Davis Media.