The 2011 NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) presented by Turner Sports, CBS Sports and the NCAA delivered the significant increase in total visits YOY across all platforms for the entire NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. The tournament also scored 13.7 million total hours of streaming video consumed through MMOD online and iPad and iPhone apps, a 17% increase over 2010.
In total, there were 52 million visits across the MMOD broadband and mobile platforms from Selection Sunday on 3/13 through the end of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship on 4/4. NCAA March Madness on Demand provided live streaming video, plus interactive TV companion functionality, of every game of the new 68-team tournament as they were broadcast for the first time this year nationally in their entirety on TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV.
Free to users across all platforms, including on broadband, iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch (over Wi-fi and 3G), MMOD offered new features for fans to view the games including improved live viewing with richer quality and larger format streams, a personalized channel lineup feature, live stats and social media interaction.
Live coverage of the championship across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV is the most-watched tournament since 2005, averaging 10.2 million total viewers, +7% from 9.5 million total viewers for CBS Sports’ 2010 coverage and is the highest viewer average for the NCAA Tournament since 10.6 million in 2005.
The overall tournament average, including the First Four, is a 6.4/14 rtg./share, +7% from a 6.0/13 for 2010, according to Nielsen Fast Nationals. The 6.4/14 is the highest average rating for the NCAA Tournament since a 6.9/15 in 2005.
Other NCAA.com and MMOD highlights for the 12 tournament game days from 3/15 to 4/4:
•An average of 1.9 million daily unique visitors on broadband, a 16% increase from last year.
•683K average daily unique users on the mobile apps.
•30% 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 922K from 3/17-3/18.
