March Madness On Demand Player Sets Record
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
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