CBS Doubles Sales Of Online Ads For NCAA Tournament Webcast

CBS said that it has sold “as much as $10[M] in online advertisements” for its “March Madness On Demand” Webcast of the NCAA men’s basketball championship, twice as much as in ’06, as ad buyers “bet on a surge in visits from 5 million” last year, according to Tim Mullaney of BLOOMBERG NEWS. CBS Senior VP/Sports Sales & Marketing Chris Simko said the net has sold $9-10M in online ads, up from $4-4.5M last year. Advertisers said that prices have risen 20-30%, after the R06 tournament “drew twice the audience that CBS promised.” CBS has signed more than 30 companies for online advertising, up from 20 last year. Among the new buyers are Cingular Wireless, now called AT&T Mobility, which is sponsoring the Webcast’s first live halftime show. Marriott, State Farm and Dell are all returning this year. Cathay Financial analyst Andrew Baker said, “The importance of the new stream of revenue is that the migration of ad dollars to the Internet is pretty clear” (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 2/26).