College kids are always on the cutting edge of technology, helping to popularize trends like social networks and online gaming. And so perhaps that’s why the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has become the most technologically innovative of all the big sporting events. For the third straight year, all games will be available for free download on the internet. This year CBS has entered agreements with third-party servers to make these feeds appear ubiquitous, with links everywhere from YouTube to ESPN.com. The network has also partnered with Facebook for a March Madness application, game clips can be streamed directly to cell phones, and a video on demand option is available on cable and DirecTV. All these new media initiatives have resulted in a small but growing stream of revenue as well. This year March Madness on Demand will generate $25 million in ad sales, for a profit of $18 million, double last year. New media sponsors include State Farm and Marriott, and the webcast is expected to make up roughly 1 percent of the total viewership of more than 130 million for CBS’s 63 games. Irving Rein, professor of communication studies at Northwestern University and co-author of "The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace,” talks to Media Life about the most promising new technology, online gambling and who will win the tourney. 

 
Which emerging platform for the NCAA tournament -- cable, online, VOD -- holds the most promise?
 
The beauty of the Final Four is that all the platforms work to some degree. In fact, they have the advantage of working together as people around the clock can engage the Final Four on some platform at any time.
 
If I had to choose, I would have no hesitancy in selecting the cell phone as the most critical emerging technology.

Its advantage is that it can be engaged anywhere and in doing so provides, if not the most, certainly the quickest gratification, for the fan.

It also skirts the increasing employer embargo in the workplace. There is no firewall on a cell phone.
 

In terms of using new technology, why has the NCAA tournament been so successful at introducing new ideas? You just aren't seeing the same stuff for other sporting events. Is it the nature of the tourney (the length of time)?
 
The Final Four is clearly one of the blue chip events of the sporting world. Its great advantage is that the 64 teams all bring to the event fans, money, and involvement. That’s a terrific base for a sporting event and is a great advantage for the Final Four.
 
It also has the advantage of accessing a critical youth fan base that has been watching its teams for the entire year. Couple that 64-team base with all the conference schools that also have skin in the game and you have a huge assembly of fans eager to participate in some format.
 
The Final Four has such a youth-based audience that’s so familiar with all the new technologies that it only stands to reason that cell phone and internet use would be at record levels.

The other advantage is that it builds over a period of time and, as a consequence, holds the attention of pool participants who also have skin in the games.
 

Do you think other sporting events will eventually grow such a presence, or is the tourney way out ahead of them all in that respect?
 
Other sports are benefiting from the technology boost.

Football is clearly the fantasy sport of choice and baseball has been very successful using multiple channels of distribution to market and merchandise its products.
 
We're also seeing niche sports such as lacrosse and paintball using all the new technologies and using them to grow their markets. There has never been a period in sports history where there’s been such a dichotomy with more opportunity and distribution than ever before and corresponding fragmentation and competition for what we term in our book “the elusive fan.”

CBS once again doubled the revenue for the online game feeds this year. Do you see revenue growth in this area slowing or plateauing in the next five years?
 
There’s no question that the game feeds will continue to explode as an area of growth. As the marketplace continues to expand and utilize new technology, fan expectations grow with it.

The downside is whether advertising revenues on that distribution channel will make up for losses in more traditional viewing patterns. That issue of revenue is the major driver going forward for the sports distributors as the fan will be obligated to pay up in some manner.
 

Do you think CBS deals with sites like Facebook will help increase awareness of or traffic to its online game coverage?
 
Anytime you're tapping into millions of users, your chances of increasing traffic is incremental. The advantage of Facebook is that it can reach the casual fan who may be out of the sight lines of traditional game coverage. Tournament pool participation can also spread virally within the multiple social networks on the site.     
 

Gambling is obviously a part of March Madness. Has the ban on online gambling had any impact on interest in the NCAA tourney? Do you expect it to?
 
I would be surprised if the ban has any short-term effect on Final Four gambling.

The major content distributors are providing the format for creating the pools. Most of the gambling is being done off-site. I don’t think anyone knows yet what the long-term implications of the ban are. 
 

So who do you have winning the title?
 
UCLA.