Marc Cuban at NATPE 2013

Joking more people know him from ABC’s Shark Tank than as a basketball team owner, outspoken Marc Cuban opened the three-day NATPE conference citing the merits watching television the good old fashioned way. “The Internet is designed for everything but video,” Cuban said during a Q&A with CNN moderator Poppy Harlow at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. “Television has a huge advantage in the social media world. With TV, everyone experiences same thing at the same time. TV is starting point for conversations. When you watch TV, you are getting a unique experience that you can’t get online.”

Cuban, who is also president of live-event focused cable network AXS TV (amongst countless other ventures), believes that live events drive the social media platform.

“Not even 30 percent of the U.S. population is on Twitter, and an even smaller percentage is actively using it,” said Cuban. “By going in the direction that we did at AXS TV, we’ve found a unique solution to start the social-media conversation. If you want to be a part of the social-media conversation that all of your friends are having, you have to have cable or satellite TV to see live events, sports, awards shows and popular reality shows.”

Cuban also cited social media platforms for the rising success of Shark Tank.

“When I came on as a guest three years ago, I tweeted live from the show and the ratings immediately increased,” he said. “Everyone else followed and our ratings continue to grow. Even in repeats, we deliver.”

As for older folks and how they watch television:

“When you make someone work to find their television, that doesn’t work,” Cuban said. “TV is the best alternative to boredom.”