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The Basketball Tournament Begins With Games Streaming On Facebook Live Via Whistle Sports

The Basketball Tournament, which got under way this past weekend with regional play in L.A. and Charlotte, streamed games on Facebook Live via Whistle Sports for the first time in the event’s three-year history. The open-application, March Madness-style tournament, which features teams made up mainly of current and former pro and college players from across the country competing for a grand prize of $2M, this year signed a traditional rights-fee deal allowing Whistle to stream all 48 regional games live over the course of two weekends. Each game stream features mic'd-up audio from one player on each team and both coaches in addition to live play by play. While occasional interruptions occurred on the first weekend of streaming, comments on the Facebook Live platform expressed satisfaction with the on-court sound.

VIEWERSHIP NUMBERS: TBT Founder & CEO Jon Mugar said that live-streamed games from the South region in Charlotte averaged 43,970 views, while those from L.A. in the West region averaged 30,680.  Each game was divided into two separate streams -- one for each half -- due to Facebook rules prohibiting streams longer than 90 minutes. The two regions combined for a total of 1,791,600 views for 48 halves of basketball, but the separate streams for each half means the numbers -- both game averages and total viewership -- likely include some redundant, non-unique viewership. Mugar added that the Midwest and Northeast regions are the most popular, and he expects higher numbers for the second weekend of regionals on Saturday and Sunday. He estimated that close to 1,500 fans attended the Charlotte games over two days, and almost 1,000 attended games in L.A. Beginning with the quarterfinals, games will move to the ESPN family of networks, with 11 games on linear TV and four streaming via WatchESPN. Mugar said the tournament splits ad inventory for the games with ESPN. Sources said that the TBT initially signed a one-year revenue-sharing deal with ESPN for last year's event, and the net had the option to keep the tournament for this summer.

GAINING TRACTION: TBT brought on Kumho Tires as a sponsor last week in the days leading up to the first set of regionals. Kumho joined presenting sponsor Jack Link's beef jerky with on-court and in-arena branding over the weekend and will receive ad inventory during the ESPN telecasts of later rounds.

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