Florida Gulf Coast’s #DunkCity and Wichita State’s Final Four appearance have surely taken the nation by storm these last few weeks. Both Cinderella runs benefited from the advances in technology, be it social media and mobile. George Mason’s historic trip in 2006 seems like a distant memory that one has to check YouTube for any remnants. I’m sure they wish their Big Dance story was talked about then through the sundry of outlets available at that time. In fact, Twitter’s Founder, Jack Dorsey, sent out his first tweet during March Madness seven years ago and now half of the 165 million users access the platform via mobile; and there’s about 3 billion more mobile phones by comparison today as noted by Phizzle.
In less than a decade, the exponential technological growth and adoption has been virtually tantamount to the 75 storied years of the NCAA’s basketball postseason. No longer are people solely listening to this event through the radio or watching it on television. Fans expect to follow the games within their fingertips, and apps present a medium that bridges social media and mobile to enhance the experience. Along with major sporting events offering a second-screen option, Turner Sports continued their efforts from last year and revamped the NCAA March Madness Live App to include an exhaustive device selection and information architecture updates. The most notable change, however, pertains to the monetization model, from an initial fee to a free preview mode ensued by cable authentication.
This decision to open accessibility to anyone has benefited all app partners and overall revenues, which may have previously dissuaded users to pay the upfront fee. According to an MBA@UNC infographic, Turner and CBS invested $10.8 billion for the broadcasting rights, $86.3 million ad dollars two years ago from AT&T, Coca-Cola, and Capital One combined, and $162 million shy of topping the NFL Playoffs’ $900 million mark for total revenue. In the social arena, Lehigh had the most Twitter mentions in a single game with 9,015, “Final Four” was tweeted a total of 466,492 times, and 2,065,060 amassed tweets of relevant keywords throughout last year’s tournament. And in mobile, 69 percent of fans preferred their phones as second-screen alternatives to the games at hand, with 48 and 20 percent of them checking scores and viewing game highlights, respectively.
Consequently, the latest returns from this NCAA March Madness Live iteration has performed ahead of expectations, especially compared to last year’s version. Of note, 10 million live video streams have occurred and 2.6 million uniques on mobile, which is an uptick of 198 and 121 percent, respectively. To better illustrate these staggering new metrics, SportTechie proudly presents our first ever infographic below (click to enlarge).
