MARK CUBAN OFFERS ADVICE TO NETWORK EXECS ON AD-SKIPPER

At the Produced By Conference over the weekend, Mark Cuban, who made a fortune in online video well before there was much of a market for online video, suggested that some prominent video sites today attempt to deceive advertisers with rubbish statistics. He pointed out that his own Shark Tank, his relatively low-rated reality show for entrepreneurs, drew an average of 4.297 million viewers on Friday night and might have peaked at around 7 million. By contrast, he noted, “Go to the most-viewed English-language video for YouTube and maybe there’s one that gets 700,000 views a day. … The numbers just don’t support comparisons to TV,” he said. Cuban also had some advice for broadcast network executives who are battling DISH network over its ad-skipping DVRs. Instead of filing lawsuits, he said, they should try to make a deal — “take advantage of digital opportunities” by, say, requiring DISH executives to pay a premium for subscribers who opt for the “Hopper” DVRs.