With the Final Four now locked in for Saturday, Turner Sports and CBS Sports have maintained their own hot streak heading into the weekend’s game. The companies are reporting that its coverage of the 2017 NCAA Tournament through Friday ranks as the most-watched since 1993, according to Nielsen, with an average of 9.8 million viewers and up 11% over 2016 numbers. Friday’s Sweet 16 games on CBS and TBS averaged 12 million viewers, ranking as the third most-watched Regional Semifinal Friday since 1993 and up 13% over year-ago numbers.
On the digital front, NCAA March Madness Live prepares for the final weekend with tournament numbers that have scored 5.9 million live video streams for Friday’s games, marking an all-time best and up 87% over last year, adding to a record 75 million live video streams through Thursday’s contests. Now the platform, managed by Turner Sports in partnership with CBS Sports and the NCAA, will offer enhanced VR coverage of the NCAA March Madness Live VR app with Intel True VR, and sponsored by Intel, to allow fans with a virtual courtside seat for the NCAA Final Four National Semifinals and National Championship from Phoenix. Cynopsis asked Hania Poole, VP/GM of NCAA Digital, Turner Sports about the trends and what we can expect with the VR experience.
Poole on trends: The biggest trend we’ve seen has been the overall growth across all platforms through the first week – television, digital and social. With NCAA March Madness Live, we’ve continued to see heavy consumption over the first Thursday and Friday of the tournament with the at-work audience. We’ve also seen more engagement through connected devices, as well as our ancillary content. We’ve invested in these areas, providing broader content integration surrounding the live streaming experience, and it has further helped the time spent within our products.
On the biggest surprise: Across an overall media landscape in which desktop viewing has dropped, it has generated considerable growth across MML year over year, speaking to the must-see nature of this event.
On VR: We’re giving fans more options than ever before to select the VR experience that is best for them. We’ve introduced a new business model, creating virtual ticket options that provide a courtside vantage point and, for the first time, a fully produced VR experience for the NCAA Tournament. In addition to live streaming coverage of the National Semifinals and National Championship, along with the VR offering through the NCAA March Madness Live VR app, we’ve added a live commentary stream feature as a companion experience to our live video. It’s a running commentary with interesting nuggets and insights as fans watch live video content and we’ve received a lot of positive feedback.
On measuring success: The best measurement is the levels of engagement with the product and each of the various types of content we provide. We’ve built up the offerings surrounding our live streaming coverage, keeping fans immersed for longer periods of time across the board this year. Content is always paramount, as is building stable products that deliver a great experience for fans, and we feel this year’s offerings have delivered on both.
