WebProNews

CBS has announced that its March Madness on Demand traffic is up 56 percent over last year for the first day of the first round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

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.