NEW YORK — The streaming app for the men’s college basketball tournament, NCAA March Madness Live, is introducing Fast Break, a new feature offering a continuous feed cutting in and out of all the live games. Think NFL RedZone but for hoops.
Fast Break will be available for the opening round of the tournament, the Thursday and Friday slate of 32 games with up to four airing concurrently. This is a new part of the March Madness Live app, which Turner Sports developed in conjunction with partners CBS and the NCAA, with Turner-owned iStreamPlanet supporting the streaming infrastructure with an enhanced picture of up to 60 frames per second.
Former Miami Marlins play-by-play commentator Rich Waltz will host the streaming channel, with insights from former Kentucky legend Tony Delk and NCAA.com contributor Andy Katz.
“We’ve known for years that our fans want this,” said Hania Poole, Turner’s vice president and general manager of its NCAA Digital property. “It’s for people who are enthusiasts of the tournament. They can watch one stream and essentially tune in to the best moments of all four [concurrent] games on those days.”
The MML app will also be available across 16 platforms this spring with Google Daydream’s virtual reality headset a notable addition, as Intel True VR will again be providing some live VR content. The Apple TV app has upgraded the presentation of its multi-game live feed, with customers able to watch a digital sampling of up to three hours before having to authenticate with a TV provider.
“There are myriad ways to watch the tournament and consume the tournament,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said. “I think part of the reason why the tournament is, I think, bigger today than it’s ever been is because of the way we’ve empowered the viewer and the fan.”
Turner president David Levy said “the new measure of success” is not TV ratings but the engagement across all platforms.
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Customers playing the NCAA’s Bracket Challenge game can opt to receive personalized push notifications updating users on how their selected teams are faring and which games will have the biggest impact on their pool’s standings. Some of the advanced insights will be produced by the Google Cloud-powered Bracket IQ.
“We’re not doing a lot for the work ethic of the American worker,” McManus said with a laugh. “There will be a lot of lost productivity out there.”