If you can’t make it to IUB’s Little 500 events, tune in

More than one million viewers watch HDNet in their homes, in restaurants with HDTVs and at consumer electronics retailers broadcasting HDTV in their showrooms.

HDNet was co-founded by IU alumnus and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and is the first national television network to broadcast in 1080i HD, the highest quality format of high-definition television. HDNet is distributed by DIRECTV and Charter systems to their HDTV customers.

In addition to producing the broadcast, HDNet producers will speak to a class of IU telecommunications students and involve them in behind-the-scenes activities on race day.

A one-hour, edited version of the race may be re-broadcast later on Indiana television stations. The IU Alumni Association is planning parties around the country to watch HDNet’s race broadcast.

The Little 500 first gained international exposure through the 1979 film Breaking Away, which was filmed in Bloomington. Featuring a Hoosier teenager so smitten with international bicycle racing that he starts speaking Italian, it went on to garner five Academy Award nominations and the Oscar for best screenplay, written by the late IU alumnus Steve Tesich. The film also received the Golden Globe award for best film-musical or comedy. Stars of the film returned in 1999 for a 20th anniversary celebration. After the film’s success, the Little 500 in other years was broadcast on CBS, ESPN, Fox Sports and the Outdoor Life Channel.

http://www.iusf.bloomington.com/

Highlights of the Little 500 events will be shown at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 27, WISH TV Indianapolis, channel 8.