On Day 1 of March Madness (Thursday), more than 1 million video streams carried CBS's free on-demand, out-of-market NCAA men's basketball games, serving more than 268,000 simultaneous streams - a record-breaking day for a sports event streamed live on the internet, report Reuters and the Hollywood Reporter. Moreover, that total is second only to Yahoo's webcast of the Discovery shuttle launch last July which attracted 335,000 simultaneous viewers, writes Red Herring.
CBS SportsLine, which said 2 million fans visited the site in the first 24 hours, used MLB Advanced Media, Akamai Technologies and Limelight Networks services to offer the games. It also used a "waiting room," which presented scores and other info, to accommodate excess demand.
Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable announced a deal with CBS to offer condensed games on-demand during the tournament; it follows a similar deal with Apple iTunes.
Prior coverage:
- CBS Brings March Madness to iTunes
- CBS Streams March Madness; Dell, Marriott Sponsor
- March Madness Boosts Sports Sites
