MARK CUBAN'S HDNET TO AIR JAPAN'S DREAM

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MARK CUBAN'S HDNET TO AIR JAPAN'S DREAM
Saturday, April 26, 2008 - by MMAWeekly.com

The Mark Cuban-owned HDNet network on Friday announced, via its Inside MMA television show, that it will begin airing DREAM events from Japan.

The new partnership starts with DREAM.1, which will air on Friday, May 2 at 10:30 p.m. ET. The event occurred earlier this year on March 15 and featured the opening round of the promotion’s Lightweight Grand Prix tournament.

On May 3, HDNet will air DREAM.2, which occurs Monday, April 29 in Saitama, Japan. DREAM.2 features the opening round of the promotion’s Middleweight Grand Prix tournament.

Though no definitive times were released, future DREAM events will air on the same day of the event in Japan or on a much shorter delay than the first two events.

The initial deal between HDNet and DREAM covers the promotion’s first six events.

News of the deal arrives on the heels of DREAM losing its primetime television slot on the Tokyo Broadcasting System in Japan. TBS will still are DREAM events, but it will be on a one-week delayed basis.

The DREAM events will, however, air on live pay-per-view television on SkyPerfectTV, including the April 29 event, according to a report on Sherdog.com. Although being pulled from primetime is a step backwards for the promotion, the live pay-per-view events will air unedited, unlike the edited prime time showings.

The partnership between HDNet and DREAM had been speculated for quite some time. As Andrew Simon told MMAWeekly earlier this month, “I think (DREAM) would be a fine addition to the great partners we currently have on HDNet. We are already partnered with Strikeforce, IFL, Sportfight, Maximum Fighting Championship, Ring of Combat, XFL and M1-Global.”

[MMA_Fan]

I like that UFC has some competition and they are doing it for FREE instead of so many PPV like UFC is putting up.