Posted on 03/16/2006 10:39:32 AM PST by abb
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- CBS Inc. (CBS) kicked off its first-ever free live showing online of the men's NCAA tournament, with more than 100,000 people either watching the video of the Seton Hall vs. Wichita game, or in a virtual waiting room, trying to get in. The live video streams were running 365 kilobits per second. Larry Kramer, head of CBS's digital operations, said he's prepared for at least 200,000 simultaneous viewers, placing the tournament Webcasts squarely among the top live online draws of all time.
Apparently a suspicious package has caused the evacuation of the site in San Diego. Just broadcast on CBS.
PS: I am watching on CBS Sportsline right now.
well I have the DirecTV package, but this was inevitable.
Until they figure out how to get multiple games at once playing in the feed, and they don't have that yet, I think I will stick with TV for now, since I can play 4 games at once on my TV :)
Oh, I think it will be "The TV becomes a computer."
Most people have a love/hate relationship with their computers. People LOVE their television.
Convergence is real.
If I had to choose between TV and the internet, I would keep the computer and internet and give up my tv...
What I'm saying is: Your TV and computer will be one unit. Convergence.
Why do you think Microsoft bought WebTV?
Oh, I agree 100%. But "networks," as they are known today, will cease to exist by the end of the decade...
Yup. Murdoch understands: Satellite, cable, internet, content.
I finally got in after a 45 min wait. At one point there were 140,818 waiting to get in. I believe the system has now crashed.
The NCAA arena in San Diego has been evacuated due to a bomb scare. KREM.com had a LIVE video stream available. Games at that location have been delayed. Check with KREM.com for more details as they become available.
Web users line up for March Madness
Waiting-room line surges above 100,000 potential viewers
By Scott Banerjee, MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:17 PM ET Mar 16, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- More than 100,000 college-basketball fans lined up on the Internet Thursday to view the first games of the NCAA men's tournament, suggesting enthusiastic early demand for CBS Corp.'s offer to present the games free online.
At 12:45 p.m. Eastern time, with three games in progress simultaneously, the number of fans waiting to see the first-round match-up of Seton Hall and Wichita State spiked as high as 140,000, according to a MarketWatch reporter observing the Webcast.
'We're making adjustments every minute based on how things are holding up.'
Thirty minutes later, the waiting-room line was trimmed to below 49,000 as CBS scrambled to accommodate the surge in interest. Take MarketWatch Poll: How are you keeping tabs on the daytime games?
"We're making adjustments every minute based on how things are holding up," said Larry Kramer, head of CBS's (CBS) digital operations.
The live video streams were running at speeds of 365 kilobits per second, delivering about half the video quality that users would experience when viewing a television. Audio quality was inconsistent, with feeds cutting out for as many as 10 minutes at a time.
"So far everything is going very well except that one sound feed," said Kramer, commenting via e-mail from a CBS control room in Florida.
Kramer said he's prepared for at least 200,000 simultaneous viewers, placing the tournament among the top live online draws of all time. See column by Bambi Francisco.
At 1:25 p.m., a general-admission viewer logging in to watch Oklahoma versus the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at the half-time break encountered a waiting-room queue of just 247 people.
Not all fans endured equal wait times. Certain "VIP" Web users -- who'd signed up for "March Madness On Demand" before Thursday -- experienced little to no wait to watch the game of their choice.
CBS Corp.'s live streaming of the tournament is accessible free of charge though cbs.sportsline.com, cstv.com and ncaasports.com. End of Story
Scott Banerjee is a reporter for MarketWatch in San Francisco.
I waited less than 30 seconds to get in.
I have zero interest in any of the games that won't be on local TV but I feel like being an ass and keeping my slot just because I have it.
HA HA
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