Come Sunday, March 15 millions of American’s across the country will start filling out their brackets for the annual NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament. For the next three weeks, men and women alike will be tuning into the more than 60 games cheering on their selected teams with an intensity rivaled only by Tyler Hansbrough. This is one of the only times in sports that viewers will cheer for teams they have never heard of and even against their own alma mater all for the sake of their bracket and bragging rights.
Like many things in today’s world, technology will allow viewers to stay connected and updated with their teams 24/7 throughout the tournament. Through mobile phones, satellite TV and the internet, March Madness viewers will never miss a basket unlike those going up against Hasheem Thabeet. Staying tuned into your bracket is easy!
To help you stay connected this year, we wanted to share some of the innovative ways to follow the action:
- On the go, consumers can tune in directly on their mobile phone. Viewers can receive real-time game scores, updates and periodic highlights sent directly to their devices. You can also watch live games on your mobile device through services such as Verizon Wireless’ VCast.
- NCAA’s March Madness on Demand site, provides live streams for all 63 games played throughout the tournament. This official site for the tournament also includes integrated team coverage, interactive message boards, and even a "boss button" that allows viewers to cover up the site by bringing up a phony spreadsheet in case you have an approaching boss.
- The ultimate sports fan’s dream is DirecTV's Mega March Madness package that allows you to watch up to four live games on your TV, at once, in a four-way split screen with the ability to switch between them. Other features include a streaming stats ticker and interactive brackets.
- For those couch potatoes, AT&T U-verse even delivers On Demand access to the NCAA® tournament, including scores, highlights, brackets and more -- all without leaving the program you're watching! You can who is advancing, track your picks, as well as view scores of previous games.
With the growing popularity of this event, businesses are starting to get in the action as well. Despite the given economic conditions, Mediaweek reported that CBS is approaching $30 million in ad revenue for its March Madness on Demand streaming product for the Tournament, rebounding just like Blake Griffin from $23 million a year ago.
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