YouTube Announces NCAA March Madness Channel

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March 2, 2015

The network powers that be — CBS, TNT, truTV and TBS — have created an official YouTube channel in preparation for March Madness. By subscribing to the channel you can receive email updates on new content ranging from highlights, best moments and more.

Right now the channel has videos from last year, though according to the press release it will feature highlights and clips from all 67 games this year. Specifically it says real-time highlights and video recaps, though unfortunately the games themselves will not be streamed. The live coverage will only consist of analysis and post-game press conferences and is not related to CBS’ current All Access subscription service.

Vice president of business operations for Turner Sports, Mark Johnson is encouraged by this new foray into the YouTube realm.

“Our new partnership with YouTube gives college basketball fans more ways to discover and watch the plays and storylines that everyone will be talking about during March Madness. Tapping into the power and reach of YouTube’s video platform opens up new opportunities for us to grow interest and consumption of March Madness.”

Given the lucrative TV ad revenue, it is no surprise the governing powers would want to rock the cash boat. Via Statista, in both 2013 and 2014 the revenue surpassed the $1 billion mark.

TVrevenue

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No surprise the NCAA and the broadcast partners wouldn’t be eager to ditch that sort of money and go to streaming option where things like Ad Block Plus can remove advertisements. This channel may be a step in the right direction with limited live coverage, but cord cutters will still be forced to look elsewhere for the games.

(Header image via truTV)





 

You can catch David spouting off about baseball, soccer, esports and other things by following him on twitter, @davidwiers.

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10 years ago

CBS/NCAA has been doing free, high-quality streaming for years. No subscription, cable-provider or otherwise, required.

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