Posted March 19, 2010 by cgseo under under
Pay-Per-Click CBS and the NCAA said Friday their March Madness on Demand (MMOD) live-streaming video player attracted record traffic for the first day of the men’s basketball tournament. In total, there were 3.4 million hours of live streaming video and audio consumed, over 20 percent growth compared to 2009, with 3 million more unique visitors to the MMOD video player. Both figures represent the largest single day of traffic for a live sporting event on the Internet. The MMOD “Boss Button” was clicked over 1.7 million times on the first day of the first round of the tournament. The “Boss Button” was redesigned for the 2010 tournament, it hides the live video on the screen and mutes the audio replacing it with a flow chart image. The 2010 Boss Button was designed by cartoonist Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic. “NCAA March Madness on Demand continues to regularly exceed our expectations,” said Sean McManus, President, 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.” Other highlights from MMOD traffic include: *The most watched game on 3-18 was the double overtime Florida vs. BYU game with 521k hours of streaming audio and video. That’s up 50 prcent over 2009′s most watched game from the first day of the first round (Washington vs. Mississippi State) which had 348 hours of streaming. *The most watch hour yesterday day waas 2:00-2:59 ET with 533k streaming hours (16% of the total for the day). The MMOD is also available on CNN.com, ESPN.com, Facebook, TV.com and CNET
Tags: cbssports.com, Dilbert, expectations, Facebook, Live, march madness, mutes-the-audio, NCAA, network, president, Technology
Posted March 10, 2010 by cgseo under under
Pay-Per-Click With the 2010 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament starting next week (March 16), it’s no surprise the majority (83%) of fans will watch coverage on television, while 44 percent will go online and 10 percent will use a mobile device, according to a new survey by Unicast. Among those planning to follow the tournament online or on a mobile device, a majority will visit ESPN.com (69%). Other branded popular sports sites fans plan to visit include Yahoo Sports (42%), Fox (24%), CBS (29%), and AOL (17%). More than a quarter of fans following the tournament (26%) will visit NCAA.com, while 17 percent will type in the URL for their favorite team. Fans will also gather information on the tournament via search engines (22%), social networks (18%), or newspaper/magazine sites (20%). “On the heels of the extensive online coverage of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament offers online publishers another premium sporting event that will generate high traffic from consumers looking to follow the tournament outside their living rooms,” said Bryan Hjelm, VP of Marketing for Unicast . “Digital innovations like iPhone apps, online bracket tools and streaming video are bringing basketball fever to a growing online audience of fans. “Sites like ESPN.com and Yahoo! Sports will dominate traffic due to their inherent sports fan user base, which make them prime real estate this month for marketers targeting the typical visitor – men aged 18 to 35.” The most popular online activities for those following March Madness include:
Tags: AOL, march madness, marketing, NCAA, Review and Story, Social Networks, Technology, unicast, vancouver, yahoo
Posted March 1, 2010 by cgseo under under
Pay-Per-Click CBSSports.com said today it has upgraded its NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) video player. CBS said it will again offer a standard video player in addition to providing viewers with the ability to upgrade to a high-quality player delivering an improved video stream. Upgrades to the player include the ability of viewers of the high-quality player to watch picture-in-picture highlights of ongoing action inside a live video stream from the tournament. Additionally, both the standard and high-quality MMOD video player will provide viewers with the ability to show stat overlays on top of live video action, displaying tournament and game leaders in categories including points, assists, rebounds, and 3-pointers. MMOD’s standard video player will launch on March 10 with historical highlights from past NCAA tournaments at NCAA.com as well as via links on CBSSports.com. The MMOD “Boss Button” has been redesigned for 2010 as well. The “Boss Button”, which was clicked over 2.7 million times during the 2009 tournament, hides the live video action on the screen and silences the audio, replacing it with a “business-like” image. The new “Boss Button” image will be introduced on March 14 before the NCAA Basketball Champion Selection Show. “The upgrades and improvements CBSSports.com has made to NCAA Madness on Demand in 2010 will provide for an incredible online viewing experience,” said Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBSSports.com. ” Our goal has always been to give NCAA basketball fans access to all the games on all platforms – TV, online, and mobile, and through that process, we’ve built one of the largest streaming events in the world.”
Tags: audio, during-the-2009, hides-the-live, live video stream, march madness, Review and Story, selection show, standard-video, Technology, tournament, video player