CBS's NCAA March Madness On Demand A Success
CBS SportsLine and the NCAA yesterday announced that NCAA March Madness on Demand, the online video player that provided streaming live video of the first 56 games of the 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship set a record, according to what, we don't know, for scheduled live entertainment or sports event with over 268,000 simultaneous streams. In total, NCAA March Madness on Demand has already surpassed 1.2 million video streams served. I guess we were wrong thinking people would prefer the couch potato method of viewing.
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With all due respect, that shrug of the shoulders was so nonchalant, I just gotta rib you for it: "I guess we were wrong." Oh yes -- you and a lot of others who dismissed the potential convergence of TV & the net. My colleagues had games going non-stop in our office yesterday (and posted about in on our blog). It shouldn't be any surprise that sports — programming whose real-time excitement just can't be underestimated — provides the fuel for the this kind of convergence. The earliest evangelists of Interactive TV looked to sports to leverage their dreams of making TV a two-way experience, and it appears they were on to something. Biggest winners: the NCAA and advertisers. 1.2 million steams is a lot of nice reach. Crow is served, my brother.
Crow accepted and eaten with humility:-)
You were wrong, but only because (as the previous post suggests) you underestimated the number of people that were unable to hit the couch because they had to be present (in body if not mind) at the office. I doubt you'll get a quarter of the number of streams on weekends (although streaming to travelers who also cannot get to their couch is big too).
Content anywhere, anytime...