National Collegiate Athletic Association

NCAA News Archive - 2010

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Mar 19, 2010 4:12:03 PM

CBSSports.com, in partnership with CBS Sports and the NCAA, Friday released traffic statistics for NCAA March Madness on Demand showing more than 20 percent growth for the first day of the first round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship over 2009.

In total, 3.4 million hours of live streaming video and audio were consumed Thursday, with more than 3 million unique visitors to the NCAA March Madness on Demand video players. Both figures represent the largest single day of traffic for a live sport event on the Internet.

NCAA March Madness on Demand traffic figures through Thursday

• 3.4 million total hours of live streaming video and audio consumed
• 3 million unique visitors to the NCAA March Madness on Demand video players
• The most watched game was the double-overtime Florida vs. BYU game with 521k hours of streaming video and audio. That is more than 50 percent over 2009's most-watched game from the first day of the first round (Washington vs. Mississippi State), which had 348k hours of streaming.
• The most-watched hour Thursday was 2-2:59 p.m. ET with 533k streaming hours (16 percent of the total for the day). It peaked at 2:45 p.m. with 147k streaming hours between 2:45 and 2:59 p.m. ET.

"NCAA March Madness on Demand continues to regularly exceed our expectations," said Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports. "It is the perfect combination of programming and the Internet. Our ability to successfully develop the product alongside steady growth in streaming programming for the Internet and wireless content provides many options and truly maximizes the network's NCAA bundled-rights agreement."

Greg Shaheen, NCAA senior vice president for basketball and business strategies, said: "The continuing evolution of NCAA March Madness on Demand gives our fans even more reasons to stay connected to the tournament on a daily basis. Tremendous first-round games, enhanced features in the MMOD player and solid early traffic numbers all point toward an exciting few weeks to come."

CBSSports.com has again provided a standard video player in addition to offering viewers the ability to upgrade to a high-quality video player delivering an enhanced video stream. New for 2010, both NCAA March Madness on Demand video players provide viewers the ability to show statistical overlays on top of live video action, displaying tournament and game leaders in categories such as points, assists, rebounds, and three-pointers.

In 2010, CBSSports.com has once again distributed NCAA March Madness on Demand across the Internet with its Developer Platform, allowing sites to link directly into the MMOD video player. The network of sites participating in the NCAA March Madness on Demand Developer Platform in 2010 include popular news, entertainment, sports and social media sites such as CNN.com, ESPN.com and Facebook; CBS Interactive properties including TV.com, CBS.com, CNET.com and GameSpot.com; as well as other partners across the CBS Audience Network and sites for CBS television and radio stations and affiliates.

In 2010, free access to NCAA March Madness on Demand is made possible by presenting sponsors and NCAA Corporate Champions AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola.