March Madness On Demand Debuts With Triple-Digit Traffic Jump
Wider Accessibility Triggers 122% Jump On First Day To 1.75 Million Unique Users
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 3/21/2008 7:27:00 AM
The Madness might not have been so overwhelming on court -- although you probably don’t want to say that to Duke devotees -- on the first day of the NCAA Division 1 men’s basket ball tourney, but the online action certainly was.
NCAA March Madness on Demand dunked a 122% rise in unique visitors, claiming 1.75 million during the tournament’s opening day, according to figures released by CBS, CBS College Sports Network and the NCAA.
The number of on-demand VIP registrants also climbed, sprouting 22% to 571,297, while 1.23 million hit the “Boss Button,” the application aimed at avoiding the scowl or reprimand of the person who approves workers’ pay. No figure on the latter was available from the first day of last year’s tourney.
A large factor in the NCAA March Madness on Demand leap stemmed from CBSSports.com’s call to drop registration requirements, giving fans immediate admission to the video player. This one-click access gives CBSSports.com the ability to distribute links to NCAA March Madness on Demand to more than 200 sites across the Internet, including ESPN.com, Yahoo! Sports and SI.com, Facebook and YouTube.
The increased accessibility, coupled with more games, should lead to exponential growth overall: for the first time all 63 games are available online. Previously, March Madness on Demand extended from the first round into the regional semifinals, a schedule encompassing 56 contests.
“Our decision to open up NCAA March Madness on Demand to other major sports, video and social networks across the Web has not only proven a great formula for tremendous growth but also proves the mission of CBS Interactive to distribute our content in an open, non-exclusive manner using many great partners," said Jason Kint, senior vice president and general manager, CBSSports.com, in a statement. “Fans have clearly indicated that NCAA March Madness on Demand has become the most significant sports event online and, in turn a tremendous success story for our advertising partners that is complementary to the CBS Television Network.”
CBS CEO Les Moonves said the network would ring up $23 million in online ad sales in 2008 around NCAA March Madness on Demand.
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