Comcast Happy To Back 'Boss Button'

Hitting the "boss button" on March Madness on Demand was quite the popular practice on the first day of the NCAA Men's Division 1 Basketball Tournament.

On March 20, some 1.5 million tapped the application, which takes users to a spreadsheet of tournament data and information, in the event that their boss is looming, courtesy of sponsor Comcast. That total represented 60% of the 2.5 million that punched the function during the entire 2008 tournament. All told, there some 2.7 million unique visitors to MMOD, an increase of 56% from the first day of last year's event, with the number of video and audio hours consumed, growing 65% to 2.8 million hours, according to CBSSports.com.

While employers might not necessarily agree, Comcast was delighted with the return on its sponsorship.
"There was a lot of exciting action yesterday, in the way of an avoidance of upsets. A lot of people were certainly checking out March Madness on Demand," Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Allen. "We knew the boss button was a great opportunity. We're very excited."
Comcast media agency MediaVest facilitated the association, which was sponsorable this year for the first time.
How many users will hit the boss button before the 2009 national champion is crowned on April 6 is unclear. But 90% of MMOD viewing occurs during the tourney's first two days, according to CBSSports.com senior vice president and general manager Jason Kint.