CBS Digital Media President Larry Kramer chats with our exec editor about the history-making success of the NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) video player.

Last week, CBS SportsLine debuted NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD), the online video player that streams live video of the first 56 games of this year's NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship-- with MMOD online coverage complementing the CBS broadcast coverage. The online coverage is free, although users must register and download the application.

Within 24 hours, over two million users had passed through the virtual "Waiting Room" to view video of the games. Just after the start of the first games, the line of users in the Waiting Room waiting to see video was 150,000 people long. According to a CBS press release, "if that line was single-file and visible (assuming each person takes up two feet of space), it would have been over 50 miles long."

I chatted with CBS Digital Media President Larry Kramer on Thursday night -- before the final numbers for the first 24 hours came in -- about the MMOD project and what it means.

Brad Berens: What sort of audience numbers can you tell us about? What can you tell us about the viewership?

Larry Kramer: We hit 268,000 simultaneous streams about halfway through the first games. As of about 7:30PM Eastern, we have had more than 1.4 million streams. We are not even halfway through today's games, but we believe the daytime audiences will be by far the largest. There's a fairly regular turnover during the day. We had a steady stream of about 4,000 people coming on every minute.

Berens: This is a historic moment for the internet... what are the top three things that you think people will look back on and see as coming out this March Madness event?

Kramer: It's a three part answer.

1. This is the moment that a major sporting event, a large audience and major advertisers came together on the web. The timing was perfect as broadband acceptance has shot up this year, and the advertising world has embraced web video.
2. March Madness represents the perfect event for the web because it supports and supplements broadcast coverage. And it adds value by matching audiences spread out around the country to events spread out across the country.
3. A major media company showed it could extend its successful broadcast content into new media without hurting the core business.

Berens: What sort of results can you describe already, if any?

Kramer: We're thrilled that we have been able to present a good viewing experience with so many variables involved on the web. The audience has accepted the tools we created, like the Waiting Room, to ensure that their experience was a good one, even though we don't control large portions of it, like the internet in general and the local networks that people view the games on.

Berens: Are there any integrated opportunities for advertisers that include both the TV coverage of March Madness as well as the player?

Kramer: Yes. Several of the advertisers have integrated buys. Scot McLernon (VP of sales for CBS Digital Media) can be specific.

Scot McLernon: We worked very closely with the network sales team on all of the clients that we placed in MMOD. In particular, State Farm and Pontiac were coordinated efforts.

Berens: Does CBS have plans for other, similar content plays that combine TV with a desktop application? Does CBS have plans for the player after March Madness is over?

Kramer: Yes, I can't talk about them yet, but they are in the works.

Berens: Why go with a desktop application -- which requires viewers to opt in and therefore can diminish uptake -- rather than just vidcast everything on the web?

Kramer: We needed a controlled environment to ensure the video quality and to deal with the complications of multiple feeds that people could choose from, as well as the insertion of advertising. The desktop application also allows for coordinated video and web ads. And we wanted everyone to register. It's a small price to pay for the service.