UConn's win over Butler in the Division I Men's Basketball Championship game saw traditional TV viewership tumble 18 percent from last year, but Turner Sports and CBS Sports said its presentation of March Madness on Demand saw total online visits increase 63 percent across all platforms from a year ago.
Overall, the event saw 13.7 million total hours of streaming video consumed through MMOD online and iPad and iPhone apps, a 17 percent increase over 2010.
"The new partnership between Turner Sports, CBS Sports and the NCAA allowed us to provide fans with more options online and on television than ever before to view this year's exciting NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament," said Matthew Hong, senior vice president and general manager of sports operations for Turner Sports. "The tremendous success and cross-platform growth of NCAA March Madness on Demand this year, which featured higher resolution video, social media interactivity, TV companion functionality and free video access across multiple platforms, illustrates how online and mobile viewing complemented the television viewing experience of this year's new tournament format."
Some 52 million visits across the MMOD broadband and mobile platforms from Selection Sunday on March 13 through the conclusion of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship on April 4 were logged, an average of 1.9 million daily unique visitors on broadband, a 16 percent increase from last year.
Other NCAA.com and MMOD highlights include:
- 683,000 average daily unique users on the mobile apps.
- 30 percent of all streams for MMOD from Selection Sunday through the Championship were from iPad and iPhone apps.
- An average of 67.5 minutes per daily unique visitor was spent streaming MMOD on broadband.
- An average of 16.6 minutes per daily unique visitor was spent streaming MMOD on mobile apps.
- NCAA.com/MMOD broadband averaged 3.8 million daily unique visitors and the app averaged 922,000 from March 17 - March 18.
Turner Sports and CBS Corp. last year signed a $10.8 billion partnership for broadcast, Internet and wireless rights to the tournament through 2024. MMOD provided live streaming video, plus interactive TV companion functionality, of every game of the 68-team tournament, on all platforms, including on broadband, iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.
For more:
- see this release
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