With Over 8.7 Million Hours of Live Streaming Video and Audio Recorded, Total Consumption has Already Surpassed Entire 2009 Tournament

            FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, March 23, 2010 - CBSSports.com, in partnership with CBS Sports and the NCAA, today released traffic statistics for NCAA March Madness on Demand (mmod.ncaa.com) through the first four days of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.  In total, there have been over 8.7 million hours of live streaming video and audio consumed by over 6 million unique visitors to the NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) video players -.a 35% increase over 2009 figures.

            Additionally, the NCAA MMOD "Boss Button" has been clicked nearly 3.3 million times through the first four days of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.  The "Boss Button," which was redesigned for the 2010 tournament, hides the live video action on the screen and silences the audio, replacing it with a "business-like" image.  The 2010 Boss Button was designed by cartoonist Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic.  Click here to view the 2010 Boss Button.

NCAA MMOD traffic figures through Sunday, March 21:

•·        Over 8.7 million total hours of live streaming video and audio consumed.

•·        Over 6 million unique visitors to the NCAA MMOD video players.

•·        3.3 million clicks of the "Boss Button" - surpassing the total clicks of the Boss Button for the entire 2009 tournament (2.77 million).

•·        The most-watched hour on both Thursday (3/18) and Friday (3/19) was 2:00-2:59 PM, ET with 910,258 combined streaming hours of live video and audio.

•·        The most-watched game through the first four days of the tournament was the double-overtime Florida vs. BYU game with 521,000 hours of streaming video and audio. The second most-watched game was Robert Morris vs. Villanova (462,000 hours) and the third most was Siena vs. Purdue (403,000 hours).

"With four overtime games in the first four days of the tournament, exciting finishes and upset victories have really sparked March Madness on Demand consumption thus far," said Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBSSports.com. "Our philosophy of distributing this engaging content across the Internet and utilizing the reach of the CBS Interactive network continues to pay off with record-breaking growth."

"The first weekend of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship featured some tremendous games," said Greg Shaheen, NCAA senior vice president for basketball and business strategies. "As shown by the numbers, more and more NCAA basketball fans are turning to MMOD to ensure they don't miss any of the magical moments that occur in any given game of the tournament."

NCAA MMOD is the Emmy award-winning video player that provides live streaming video and audio of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship. MMOD shows live video all 63 games, from the first round of the tournament through the semifinal and final games of the Men's Final Four,^® making it the only major sporting event that is broadcast live and in its entirety for free on the Internet. In addition to live video, NCAA MMOD also provides live audio from the Westwood One radio broadcasts of the entire NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

In 2010, free access to NCAA MMOD is made possible by presenting sponsors and NCAA Corporate Champions AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola.

•·        Click here to view an image of the 2010 NCAA March Madness on Demand video player

•·        Click here to view an image of the 2010 NCAA March Madness on Demand high-quality video player

•·        Click here to view the official logo for 2010 NCAA March Madness on Demand  

•·        Click here to view the Boss Button for 2010 NCAA March Madness on Demand

About CBS Interactive

CBS Interactive, a division of CBS Corporation, is the best online content network for information and entertainment.  With 200 million people visiting its properties each month, it is a top 10 Web property globally and a top 5 Web property in the U.S. in terms of unique video viewers.  Its portfolio of leading brands, which include CNET, CBS.com, CBSSports.com, GameSpot, TV.com, BNET, CBS RADIO, and Last.fm, span popular categories such as technology, entertainment, sports, news and business. 

Follow CBS Interactive on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cbsitweets.

More information about CBS and its businesses is available at http://www.cbscorporation.com/.

About the NCAA

The NCAA is a membership-led nonprofit association of colleges and universities committed to supporting academic and athletic opportunities for more than 400,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member colleges and universities.  Each year, more than 54,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA championships in Divisions I, II and III sports.  Visit https://www.ncaa.org/ and http://www.ncaa.com/ for more details about the Association, its goals and members and corporate partnerships that help support programs for student-athletes.  The NCAA is proud to have the following elite companies as official Corporate Champions - AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola - and the following elite companies as official Corporate Partners - Enterprise, The Hartford, Hershey's, LG, Lowe's, Planters, State Farm and UPS.

NCAA, Final Four, and March Madness are trademarks owned or licensed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

*     *     *

Press Contacts:

Alex Riethmiller - CBSSports.com       954.689.3334             ariethmiller@cbs.com

LeslieAnne Wade - CBS Sports           212.975.5171              lwade@cbs.com

Gail Dent - NCAA                               317.917.6117              gdent@ncaa.org