CBS: NCAA Hoops Online a Blowout Victory

The final scores haven’t yet been tallied, but when viewership numbers, time online and (perhaps most importantly) advertisers satisfied are added up, it will amount to another blowout victory for CBS’s online on-demand broadcasts of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, network officials said Monday.

According to CBS spokesperson Alex Riethmiller, the March Madness on Demand program saw “double digit growth with every metric” from 2006 to 2007, especially time spent viewing, which he called a “key figure.” Perhaps most significantly, Riethmiller said that CBS covered its advertising commitments for this year’s tourney in the first four days of action, thereby doubling the previous year’s total even before halftime.

Unfortunately for those who love the small screen, online video won’t be available for the upcoming Final Four games — Riethmiller said the MMOD page will, however, carry audio from the live radio broadcasts.

And what about use of the vaunted “Boss Button,” which switched to a faux spreadsheet display just in case your direct report wandered around the cube-farms, worried that you might be slacking? Riethmiller said CBS didn’t collect any stats this year on the dubious CYA-clicker, but plans to next season.