Products / Services

Fans Will Have Access to More NCAA Tournament Coverage Than Ever Before

March 12, 2008 - CBS Sports has added thirteen additional video providers to deliver extensive Video On Demand content dedicated to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Verizon, Charter, DISH Network, Insight, Mediacom, Midcontinent Communications, RCN Corporation, Wave Broadband and Astound Broadband, Sunflower Broadband, HTC and Bright House Networks have signed on to be a part of this exclusive NCAA March Madness® programming offer. CBS Sports and CBS College Sports Network (CSTV) will produce customized highlights of all 63 tournament games from the first-round to the championship game, plus historical NCAA March Madness vignettes that will be available for free to Video on Demand customers nationwide.

The comprehensive content will be available in standard definition and, in some areas, high definition, and distributed through participating video distributor’s VOD platforms, providing fans with complete coverage of all the March Madness action. The VOD programming includes NCAA March Madness Highlights, a daily recap of every game featuring extensive highlights along with select post game interviews and team press conferences. NCAA March Madness Highlights will be made available daily, giving fans immediate access to 63 tournament contests and the ability to search for specific games.

“Given the competitive landscape video providers face, they must ‘wow’ their subscribers. Virtually every major video distributor is participating in this offering and they agree NCAA March Madness Highlights is the perfect marriage of technology and content,” said Bob Rose, Executive Vice President, Distribution CBS College Sports Network. “There are millions of fans who only have five minutes of free time, and now have a chance to watch the highlights they crave when and how they want.”

The exclusive VOD content also features fully-produced NCAA March Madness Memories. Each program will include moments from 25 of the greatest games from previous NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championships, pulled from archived NCAA game and related footage. NCAA March Madness Memories will be available to customers beginning in early March. In addition a post-tournament highlight show will be available following the 2008 Men’s Final Four® and National Championship game.

CBS also announced a deal with TVN Entertainment, who will be distributing the NCAA March Madness Highlights within hours of each game’s original airing using its TVNow fast turnaround service. CBS Sports and CBS College Sports Network will use TVN’s asset delivery and management platform, ADONISS 2, and its PRI web-based metadata management toolset. This Emmy-nominated system is the most efficient content delivery solution available and allows users to actively track content, view menu structures, and change metadata both pre-pitch and post-pitch.

“Few sporting events rival the audience numbers, excitement and interest generated by CBS Sports’ coverage of NCAA March Madness,” said Matt, Cohen, senior vice president of TVN Entertainment. “Our ability to provide swift turnaround as well as dynamic asset management of this marquis VOD programming, is part of TVN’s commitment to move on demand from a static to an interactive service for operators and programmers alike.”

The NCAA is a membership-led nonprofit association of colleges and universities committed to supporting academic and athletics opportunities for more than 380,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member colleges and universities. Each year, more than 54,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA championships in Divisions I, II and III sports. Visit www.ncaa.org and www.ncaa.com for more details about the Association, its goals and members and corporate partnerships that help support programs for student-athletes.

The NCAA is proud to have the following elite companies as official Corporate Champions - AT&T, Coca-Cola and Pontiac - and the following elite companies as official Corporate Partners - DiGiorno, Enterprise, The Hartford, Lowe's, Sheraton and State Farm.

[NCAA, Final Four and March Madness are trademarks owned or licensed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.]