CBS March Madness On Demand Off To Blazing Start
- by Gavin O'Malley @mp_gavin, March 9, 2007
Ad revenue for March Madness on Demand has doubled from last year and is nearly sold out, Sean McManus, president of CBS Sports and News, told the press this week. So far, he added, ad spending for MMOD has generated about $9 million--up from $4 million last year.
Coming back from last year, Courtyard by Marriott, Dell, and State Farm make up the more than 30 advertisers signed on to sponsor MMOD. New advertisers include AT&T and its wireless unit, and Kraft Foods and its DiGiorno frozen pizza brand.
MMOD has proven to be more successful than any other digital initiative executed by CBS thus far.
"Our goal is for MMOD to be year-in and year-out the bellwether online video event by which all others are judged," said Steve Snyder, Chief Operating Officer of CBS Interactive.
Illustrating strong consumer demand, nearly half of the service's 400,000 VIP passes have already been reserved. Fans who don't register for the passes risk being relegated to a "virtual waiting room" if the service exceeds peak capacity, as it did last year.
To prevent queues from forming, however, CBS has gone ahead and doubled the service's bandwidth capacity through agreements with Content Data Networks and Akamai Technologies. CBS has also widened the player's screen by 50% from 320 X 240 pixels to 480 X 360 pixels, and added live radio broadcasts and a live halftime show produced by CBS SportsLine and sponsored by AT&T.
For the online games, CBS SportsLine is running ads specifically created for MMOD rather than those being broadcast on CBS television, thus guaranteeing incremental revenue streams.
In 2006, March Madness on Demand surpassed all expectations by pulling in more than 19 million streams of live and archived game action. In addition, the service recorded over 5 million visits during the tournament, with a total of 1.3 million users registered.
The deal required cooperation between the NCAA and CBS Sports, which is CBS's television division; CBS SportsLine.com, which is CBS Digital's main sports property; and college sports site CSTV, which CBS acquired in 2006 for $325 million.
Analysts are watching closely this year to see whether or not CBS can capitalize on the initial success of March Madness on Demand.
"They've already established that this is an effective use of broadband technology," said Mike McGuire, research director for Gartner. "What will be interesting to see going forward is how they can improve the experience for advertisers and viewers. There are some interesting behavioral patterns that will come out of this."
Last year's on-demand service replaced an existing subscription model, that required consumers to pay $19.99 for extensive tournament coverage.
CBS and CSTV first started working together in 2004, when CSTV launched March Madness on Demand, allowing consumers to watch live CBS Sports NCAA Tournament broadcasts for the $20 subscription fee.
CBS SportsLine.com produces "out-of-market" games, so called because only games that are not being broadcast live on consumers' local television markets are available to stream on MMOD.
NCAA March Madness on Demand service went live earlier this week, while the actual NCAA tournament doesn't begin until March 15 at noon.
