March Madness On Demand Surpasses 2008 Marks
Unique, Consumption Totals For First Four Days Top Entire 2008 Tourney
Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 3/23/2009 6:01:11 PM
March Madness on Demand has been very much in demand.
Through the first four days of the NCAA Men's Division 1 Basketball Tournament, the Internet streaming package from CBSSports.com, in partnership with CBS Sports and the NCAA, has already surpassed the entire 2008 tourney relative to the number of unique visitors and hours of video and audio consumption.
Over the first two rounds of the tournament, Thursday March 19 through Sunday March 22, MMOD had drawn 5.6 million unique visitors, 17% more than the 4.8 million for all of last year's Madness. Moreover, uniques were 60% ahead of the 3.5 million who had visited during the first four days of the 2008 event.
As for consumption, fans had engaged MMOD for 6.5 million hours of video and audio streaming, 30% more than all of last year's 5 million hours, and 71% greater than the 3.8 million hours through the equivalent stage a year ago.
Relative to the "boss button" -- the function sponsored by Comcast that takes users to a spreadsheet of tourney info should one's employer loom -- MMOD had already matched last year's 2.5 million hits.
CBSSports.com has greatly expanded entry to MMOD through access from some 300 Web sites.
According to CBSSports.com, the opening-round game on the tourney's first day between Cal St. Northridge, which put quite a scare into the West region's No. 2 seed Memphis before the Tigers prevailed down the stretch, had the most visitors. The Mississippi State-Washington game in the late afternoon window, which was available nationally out of market via CBS College Sports Network, generated the most hours of consumption. Officials would not specify the numbers.
On TV, CBS has rung up a 6% increase over 2008 levels through the first four games.
"We could not be more pleased by the numbers being generated by NCAA March Madness on Demand," said Sean McManus, president, CBS Sports and CBS News, in a statement. "Fans continue to embrace the new technologies and viewing options offered by CBS Sports. As ratings for the Network are also up 6%, the Network's NCAA bundled rights agreement has proven to be an early star in this year's championship."
Added Jason Kint, senior vice president and general manager of CBSSports.com:
"With CBS Interactive properties now reaching 15 million people a day, the internal marketing and promotion behind NCAA March Madness on Demand has reached new heights this year and is a driving factor in the product growth for this year's tournament. The fact that CBS Interactive produces the official athletics Web sites for 43 of the 65 teams that made the tournament and 14 of the schools in the NCAA Sweet 16 has also served as a great promotional vehicle for NCAA March Madness on Demand."
