A Lot of You Have Watched March Madness on the iPhone and iPad App [Gizmodo]
The first weekend of March Madness (otherwise known as the least productive weekend of the year, particularly in our service area) has come and gone and the viewership numbers are higher than ever.
A while back, it was announced that, for the first time ever, every tournament game would be televised on a national TV network -- on CBS, TBS, TNT, or TruTV. Then came the announcement that the games would be staggered so that fewer games would overlap and everyone could enjoy the final minutes of each game. Finally, the iPad and iPhone apps were released, which allowed users to stream live games to their devices.
Overall online streaming of March Madness games was up an impressive 47% compared to last year’s opening weekend. This increase was driven in large part by the new iPad and iPhone apps, which contributed more than one-third (36%) of all online streaming of tournament games.
In past years, March Madness On Demand was only available through the website and could not be accessed on mobile devices. The website was so popular that in past years many businesses blocked the site both to encourage employees to pay attention to their jobs and to keep their networks from collapsing. Perhaps that’s why the mobile apps saw so much success.
On the other hand, this could simply show how people are beginning to favor mobile streaming over the more traditional methods. And remember, fast Internet connections are critical to keeping that trend on track.
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