March Madness Grows Online for CBS

FT. LAUDERDALE, FLA.: CBS generated record traffic for it online coverage of men’s college basketball. The network’s CBSSports.com March Madness on Demand player logged 7.52 million unique visitors this year for the tourney, up 58 percent over last year. A total of 8.6 million hours of audio and video content were consumed by the fandom, up 75 percent from last year. TV coverage was up 5 percent in metered markets, the network said.

During the semifinal and championship games alone, the Web platform was tapped for 515,000 hours of vide and audio, up 51 percent over 2008. The Boss Button, a virtual device for those who covertly watched the action during work, was clicked 2.77 million times, up from 2.5 million for the entire tournament last year.