Television viewership ratings for the NCAA's Final Four basketball games may have gone down this year after a move from broadcast to cable, but a newly important viewing source—live video streaming—was a big winner, and TV Everywhere began to show its worth, details released by Turner Sports indicate.
Video consumption during the total tournament, colloquially known as March Madness, totaled 69.7 million live video streams, a 42 percent increase over last year's total of 49 million live video streams. Turner noted that there were 15 million hours of live video consumed during the tournament, a 7 percent increase over the previous year, calling the results "a watershed event for the TV Everywhere initiative."
TV Everywhere showed 85 percent year-over-year growth in live streams and 72 percent in hours viewed. Logged-in users streamed an average of 67 percent more minutes than users who weren't logged in, Turner reported.
The tournament final generated two million live video streams, 30 percent more than the previous year, as fans had the option to watch the games on an NCAA Web page, via Bleacher Report and CBS Sports. Additionally, live streaming was available through the Amazon App Store, Google Play and Windows Store, along with live streaming on Turner's TNT, TBS and truTV digital platforms.
Two games—Dayton versus Ohio State and Mercer versus Duke—attracted more than 4 million digital viewers.
For more:
- see this press release
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