March Madness Live to provide more NCAA Tournament coverage than ever

By Adam Flomenbaum 

march-madness-championship-art-e1333391171579Good luck to IT departments attempting to curtail March Madness viewing.

This year, the NCAA, Turner Sports, and CBS Sports will make it easier than ever to watch the NCAA Tournament.  NCAA March Madness Live will provide streaming access to every March Madness game – that’s more than 150 hours of live basketball on essentially every device imaginable.

All games will be available via NCAA March Madness Live on PCs, mobile, and tablet devices; games will air live on TNT, TBS, and truTV; fans can access the games at NCAA.com, CBSSports.com, BleacherReport.com, the App Store, Google Play, and Windows Store.

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For the Final Four, which takes place April 5, fans using March Madness Live will have access to three different feeds of the two games.  On linear TV, TBS will be broadcasting the main game coverage, while TNT and truTV will be broadcasting team-specific broadcasts.

Other March Madness Live features include:

– Expansion to new devices – NCAA March Madness Live will be available on more devices than ever before including – for the first time – Windows 8.1 and the Windows Phone 8 operating system as well as iPhone, iPad and Android 4.0+ operating system.

– New Bracket Layout – A completely new interface for smartphones and tablets, including more views and functionality and the ability to zoom in on a particular matchup, go directly to live game coverage or view the upcoming schedule with times and broadcast networks.

– GameCenter – Redesigned this year, GameCenter serves as a destination for live game streaming, pre-game matchup analysis, live in-game stats, key social moments and fan chat.

– Capital One NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge – The official bracket game of March Madness including new designs and feature enhancements on desktop, smartphones and tablets, along with expanded social functionality across all devices allowing fans to join groups, share brackets and chat with friends and other passionate fans via Facebook.

– Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social Arena – A forum to extend the conversation surrounding all of the games within NCAA March Madness Live products, fans can follow game tweets, view Instagram photos and – for the first time – Vine videos.  Fans can also participate in chats and keep a pulse on all the key moments of every game. Fans can participate in the social commentary by using the hashtag #marchmadness.

– TV Schedule – New this year, TV schedule grids will be available digitally to allow fans to plan their day around the Championship schedule. The programming guide – easily accessible via the game schedule or bracket – provides the round, date, time and network for each game.

– Tournament News – For the first time, fans will have direct access to the latest tournament news and updates – including highlights, recaps and additional information each day throughout the Championship – directly via NCAA March Madness Live.

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