Six companies have signed on to the program as initial Fantasy Platform partners. Apps from MLB.com, Bloomberg, and others will be available in the CBSSports.com App Central when it launches on January 31st. A developer web site for the platform offers a variety of tools for those interested in creating apps for the platform.

The decision to open the platform up for development comes from an awareness that fantasy sports players are accessing a wide variety of tools to manage their teams. Jason Kind, Senior Vice President and General Manager of CBSSports.com, says that “providing outside developers access to our proprietary service will benefit the entire fantasy industry ecosystem, creating additional value for companies, developers, and advertisers while consolidating and enhancing the experience for fantasy players.” The Fantasy Platform is designed to offer players the chance to integrate key fantasy management tools directly into their team management, helping to streamline the process and make it more enjoyable for players.

The initial six Fantasy Platform partners are Advanced Sports Media, Bloomberg Sports, MLB.com, Rotowire, StatSheet, and Ziguana.

CBS said it will again offer a standard video player in addition to providing viewers with the ability to upgrade to a high-quality player delivering an improved video stream. Upgrades to the player include the ability of viewers of the high-quality player to watch picture-in-picture highlights of ongoing action inside a live video stream from the tournament.

Additionally, both the standard and high-quality MMOD video player will provide viewers with the ability to show stat overlays on top of live video action, displaying tournament and game leaders in categories including points, assists, rebounds, and 3-pointers.

MMOD’s standard video player will launch on March 10 with historical highlights from past NCAA tournaments at NCAA.com as well as via links on CBSSports.com.

The MMOD "Boss Button" has been redesigned for 2010 as well. The "Boss Button", which was clicked over 2.7 million times during the 2009 tournament, hides the live video action on the screen and silences the audio, replacing it with a "business-like" image. The new "Boss Button" image will be introduced on March 14 before the NCAA Basketball Champion Selection Show.

"The upgrades and improvements CBSSports.com has made to NCAA Madness on Demand in 2010 will provide for an incredible online viewing experience," said Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBSSports.com. "

Our goal has always been to give NCAA basketball fans access to all the games on all platforms – TV, online, and mobile, and through that process, we’ve built one of the largest streaming events in the world."

CBS’high school sports site, MaxPreps.com will be featured on SI.com’s high school section and it will also be integrated with Sports Illustrated Faces in the Crowd section in both print and online. In addition Sports Illustrated writers, including David Feherty and Seth Davis, will be syndicated on CBSSports.com

Jason Kint

CBSSPorts.com will feature direct links on its site to SI.com writers, including Peter King and Tom Verducci. SI.com will promote live sports video on CBSSports.com such as SEC Live and Fantasy Football today.

"We’re thrilled to be partnering with Sports Illustrated for a deal that truly highlights the strengths of two very powerful brands in sports media," said Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBSSports.com.

"The increased exposure for MaxPreps.com through its association with Faces in the Crowd, as well as the content sharing with Sports Illustrated writers on CBSSports.com, should truly be a winning combination for both sides."

MaxPreps is the fastest growing high school sports site on the Internet with a 120 percent increase in visitors in the past year, according to comScore.

In total, there were 7.52 million unique visitors to its video player, a 58 percent increase over 2008 figures. There were 8.6 million total hours of video and audio consumed, a 75 percent increase over 2008.

CBS Sports‘ coverage of the entire 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship was up 5 percent from the previous year.

Jason Kint

"Together with the NCAA, March Madness on Demand continues to set the bar for excellence for online video coverage of a sports event," said Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBSSports.

"We’re thrilled by the record numbers we saw this year and appreciate the tremendous support we received from across CBS in helping to make this event as successful as it was."

During the Final Four weekend, online viewers watched 515,000 hours of video, an increase of 51 percent over 2008.

The "Boss Button" which brings up a fake spreadsheet, received 2.77 million clicks, while in 2008 it was clicked 2.5 million times.
 

The network said there were over 2.7 million unique visitors to its NCAA March Madness on Demand video player (56% growth) and a total of 2.8 million hours of live streaming video and audio consumed (65% growth).

"NCAA March Madness on Demand continues to regularly exceed our most optimistic expectations," said Sean McManus, President, CBS Sports and CBS News.

"The combination of the television ratings being up 9% and the continued steady growth of the Internet and wireless provides unprecedented viewing options for the fans and maximizes the Network’s NCAA bundled rights agreement."

The "Boss Button," which hides the video player with a spreadsheet, was clicked 1.5 million times on the first day of the tournament, compared to 2.5 times for the entire tournament in 2008.

CBS also said the NCAA March Madness on Demand iPhone application, which provides live streaming video of the tournament, is currently the number one paid application on the Apple App Store.

"The extremely strong growth we’ve seen from NCAA March Madness on Demand from day one of the tournament reinforces the fact that this event is the largest and most popular live sports event on the Internet," said Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBSSports.com.
 

March Madness OnDemand Logo
(Photo Credit: CBS Sports.com)

Total minutes of live streaming video in the first four days of the tournament reached 222,305, 520 surpassing the entire 2007 total minutes of live video which was 162,974,160 minutes amounting to 36 percent year-over-year growth.

More than 3.6 million fans are currently participating in the CBSSports.com bracket games across the Web. The total number of bracket participants is up 62 percent from 2007 (2.2 million). Fans clicked on the "Boss Button" which brings up a fake spreadsheet 2.1 million times.

The First Round Georgia vs. Xavier game on March 20 had a record-setting total of 376,000 hours of consumption. This surpassed the previous record high of 133,000 total hours set in 2006. The Kentucky vs. Marquette game also broke the 300,000 mark with 325,000 hours.

CBS says a large factor contributing to traffic growth was its decision to drop registration requirements for admission to the video player along with links on over 200 Web sites leading directly to live video of the tournament.