The "Madness" Hits the Online Arena

March ushers in springtime, warmer weather and the cornerstone of college basketball, "March Madness," which CBS owns the exclusive rights to air. This craze offers a huge opportunity to optimize marketing in the online forum. According to CNNmoney.com, during the event’s two-day run, 32 games will be played.

Last year, an astounding 1.3 million people signed up to watch the games for free online, which ran different commercials than the ones being aired on the TV. To ensure there are no glitches in this process, as there have been in the past, the broadcasting company has decided to add several new features to its service:

CBS has doubled server capacity, increasing the rate that videos are streamed and boosted the default size of the screen on the video player by 50 percent, according to an article by PaidContent.

The thing to note here is not so much the new features, while those are important to the end user, the thing to note is the fact that CBS is focusing on improving its online forum. It makes sense with such a huge online audience, why not funnel money into improving the online medium to offer the best possible viewing experience? Other companies should heed this warning: take care of the online medium and it will take care of you.