Live Sports - TV is far from dead (NCAA ratings up 34% YOY)

Duke versus Butler - it was a classic right up to the last bucket attempt and I was pretty much glued to the set from opening tip off.

I have talked to freinds, colleauges and even family members - most of them caught it on CBS with yes, a little surfing over to TSN and Sportsnet to watch highlights of the Tiger press conference and hockey scores....

But here is the point: Like the Olympics, huge live sporting events are a TV-first propostion. Yes, I did live stream a semi final game on http://www.espn.com/, and I have certainly been on tsn.ca and my other favourtie news and sports sites for scores and updates, but you can't compare the two (And BTW - espn.com ran plenty of TV commericals too- so much for escaping 'intrusive' messages!)

So, while many marketers continue to fixate on where their consumers have gone, and how to segment the messages by channel, I still believe if you want to run with the big dogs, you need to be in the properties that drive huge numbers - and it's just not sports - look at American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, etc.

Let us not proclaim the death of live TV yet.... this was a massive audience increase