Sports Business Digest » To catch all of the madness of March, viewers go online

To catch all of the madness of March, viewers go online

Posted on March 24th, 2008. Written by Emmett Jones.

Pretty crazy start to the 2008 NCAA tournament, right? All of those games…all of those upsets, a couple of buzzer beaters, some overtime. Did you catch it all? Maybe “You” didn’t, but a lot of people just like you are turning on their computers to make sure they don’t miss a minute of the action. From Digital Media Wire,

According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the Sports Video Group, nearly four in 10 (38%) sports fans said that they will download and watch a game at no cost over the next two years, an increase of 10% from 2007.

“As both broadband and cell phone penetration steadily increase… consumers continue to migrate their entertainment viewing to new platforms,” said Jason Oxman, the CEA’s senior vice president of industry affairs.

CBS is already capitalizing on the increase in online viewership, with their decision to allow users to watch all 63 games of the tournament, online,

CBSSports.com, in partnership with CBS Sports, CSTV and the NCAA, today announced that in 2008, for the first time, its NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) service would give users the ability to view all 63 games* of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, from the first round of the tournament through the Men’s Final Four(R) and Championship in San Antonio.

It will be interesting to see if other sports attempt to capitalize on the increase in internet usage to the extent of CBS and the NCAA. Will we see all regular season and playoff football games online through NFL.com? More baseball games online through MLB.com? Granted, I doubt anything will be free like the services on NCAA.com, but a pay site for football and baseball games? Why not? CBS has had no problem selling advertising, with advertising revenue doubling from 2006 to 2007, the NFL and the MLB have a marketable product, and heaven knows there is always a game that you want to see that you’re unable to see…So, I think its time to copy that business model and run with it.

UPDATE: Paid Content has some info about the NCAA Tourney’s First/Second Round numbers. They look impressive.

MSN Money: All Games, from First Round through Championship: CBS’s 2008 NCAA March Madness on Demand

Digital Media Wire: More Fans Watching Sporting Events on the Internet

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 2:33 pm and is filed under Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.