BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

That Deal Between HuffPost Live And Mark Cuban's AXS? It's Still Being Worked Out

This article is more than 10 years old.

In my one-year check-up on HuffPost Live last week, I neglected to mention one of the more noteworthy development in the internet news channel's brief existence: its deal to syndicate six hours of programming a day to AXS TV, Mark Cuban's cable channel.

It turns out there's a good reason it didn't come up in my conversation with HuffPost Live president Roy Sekoff: So far, it's just talk. Although it was announced four months ago, there's still no HuffPost Live programming on AXS's schedule.

"We had some tech issues. We're still working on it," Cuban says, via email. "We're hoping to be up in a few months. Probably a smaller launch, but it will happen."

Sekoff offers a slightly different explanation, also via email.

"AXS and HuffPost are still committed to bringing HuffPost Live to AXS -- but we’ve shifted our focus from repurposing our current programming to developing original programming," he says. "We hope to have more on this in the next few weeks."

In terms of raw audience numbers, the AXS deal isn't huge for HuffPost Live. Previously known as HDNet, the channel is only available in about 41 million households, or somewhat less than half of the total pay television market.

But cable and/or satellite distribution is one path to legitimacy for internet-only TV networks, and a way to market themselves to viewers who aren't yet used to getting programming "over the top," as the industry expression goes. Glenn Beck's network, The Blaze, has been aggressively pursuing carriage deals and now has more than 25 distributors, including Dish Network and Optimum TV.