• March 24, 2008

CBS said that traffic to its online video player offering coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship more than doubled to 1.75 million unique users on the first day of the tournament's first round last Thursday.

Much of that increase owes to the network's decision to drop registration requirements for its NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) service and distribute it across 200 Web sites including Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo. This year for the first time, CBS is also allowing viewers to watch all 63 tournament games online regardless of local blackouts.

Overall, CBS is expecting MMOD to generate over $21 million in ad revenue--up significantly from $9 million in 2007--and about $4 million in 2006.

--Mark Walsh