March Madness 2016: Keeping Up Online

Let’s be honest: most of us can’t watch the March Madness games live on television given our work schedules. With increased opportunities to watch the games online and on mobile devices come increased temptations to watch during working hours.Last year when we talked about March Madness, we said that while the tournament likely does change the way we work, it probably does not substantially impact how much we do of it. Most people just make up the lost time later. Opinions and behaviors have changed just one year later! The predicted corporate losses due to unproductive workers during March Madness this year is $1.9 billion.Productivity During March MadnessManagers today have a considerably more concerned about the productivity drain that March Madness creates than they were even a year ago. In 2015, half of managers said that letting employees do things like watch the games on company time or participate in pools was good for morale, including almost 10% who called the impact “very positive.” This year, under a third of managers said the impact was positive, and the amount who called it very positive fell by about half. Check out this infographic of the survey results:This year, four in 10 workers admitted that they were distracted by the games at work, almost double the number from last year. The likely culprit: the growing presence of mobile devices in the workplace and the increasing penetration of streaming video and high-speed connectivity that lets workers watch games in real time instead of doing their jobs. (source)2015 March Madness: By The NumbersLast year, 80.7 million people watched the 2015 tournament via NCAA March Madness Live, which was up 17% from 2014. In 2015, there were 250 million Twitter and Facebook impressions generated by the tournament, which was a 45% increase over 2014. When it came to keeping up with the tournament in 2015, 16% of fans followed on a mobile device while 17% following on a computer. We can expect to see all of these numbers grow again this year. Other fascinating numbers around March Madness can be found on this infographic.How to Watch OnlineNCAA March Madness Live is accessible on 12 platforms this year -- more than ever. You can watch at ncaa.com/marchmadness, bleacherreport.com, and cbssports.com. If you’d rather watch inside an app, you can download a March Madness Live app for iOS, Android, Amazon Fire tablets and Fire TV, Windows 10, Roku, and the Apple TV. The Apple TV app (for the fourth-gen model) even has a split-screen feature so you can watch two games side by side. And there’s an Apple Watch component that can send “excitement alerts” to your wrist when a game gets close, so you know it’s time to tune in.For cord cutters, there are TV Everywhere apps for watching the games broadcast on CBS, but you’ll need a login from a cable or satellite TV provider to watch the games that are broadcast on truTV, TBS, and TNT.How to Listen OnlineSiriusXM will now stream games via the SiriusXM app to give subscribers access to every game on their cell phones and other devices, in addition to their satellite radios.Keep Up With The Tournament on Social MediaIf you really can't watch or listen at work, social media is a great way to check in on the games and highlights. And this year, the social channels are offering more interaction than ever before.Facebook:Follow news and you can even add a filter to your FB profile photo!YouTube:Watch videos of games you missed.Twitter:Keep up with in the moment updates and be sure to follow the #MarchMadness hashtag. Twitter has released eight custom emojis for March Madness when you use the following hashtags:

• #MarchMadness
• #LetsDance
• #Cinderella
• #BracketBusted
• #Sweet16
• #Elite8
• #FinalFour
• #NationalChampionship

 Twitter will also be adding a standalone March Madness tab in Twitter moments, which will help fans catch up on any major plays or storylines they might have missed.Snapchat:Snapchat will feature 14 Live Stories throughout the March Madness tournament, which will air on Turner properties as well as on CBS. The Snapchat stories will collect videos and photos from fans at the games as well as behind-the-scenes content created by Turner’s social media team. (source)Instagram:Have fun and good luck on your bracket!