CBSSports.com: March Madness On Demand Passes ‘09 After Round 1; Streams More Than 8.7 Million Hours

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The number of upsets kept me checking in through the first round and it looks like the same was true for other March Madness followers: NCAA March Madness on Demand has already outpaced 2009 multimedia delivery by 35 percent, with more than 8.7 million hours of streaming live video and audio for more than 6 million unique users. CBSSports.com also benefited from four overtime games in the four-day first round. We mentioned earlier that the top viewing hour of the day Thursday was 2:00-2:59 p.m. ET. Turns out that was also the case on Friday. Those two hours alone accounted for 910,259 streaming hours. No stats yet for mobile, which is where I did most of my weekend non-TV basketball viewing.

The bulk of March Madness traffic usually comes in the first two days of the tournament, when most fans are at the office and rely on broadband. This year, the first day alone accounted for 3.4 million streaming hours, nearly half of the total. This year’s second-round numbers could be challenged by bracket-busted fans shrugging off the tournament; heavy favorite Kansas is already out of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. On the other hand, Northern Iowa, University of Washington and Cornell could have quite the following.