March Madness on Demand is virtually sold out with less than two week to go before the start of the 2011 NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
CBS and Turner, new broadcast and sales partners for this year’s event, are reporting robust demand for MMOD, which enables college hoops fans to stream all 68 tournament games on the Web for free. According to a spokesperson, there are “very limited opportunities remaining for last-minute partners.”
Neither Turner nor CBS is releasing revenue figures this year, but in 2010, CBS pulled in $37 million for MMOD. Close to 30 different brands have signed on as sponsors for the 2011 tournament, including premiere sponsors AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola, as well as Enterprise, Infiniti, The Hartford, Hershey’s, LG, Lowe’s, Planters, Unilever and UPS.
In addition, this year for the first time fans will be able to stream the games for free on their iPhones and iPads (last year CBS charged $9.99 for its MMOD mobile application). HP and Buick have signed on as exclusive mobile sponsors for this year’s tournament.
Besides streaming live games, Turner and CBS are looking to embrace fan chatter/trash talk during the NCAA tournament with the Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social Arena. This MMOD-centric community will exist on both NCAA.com and Facebook, with TBS and CBS sideline reporters making scheduled appearances to interact with fans.
