The joke about how everybody is streaming college basketball instead of working continues to look less like a joke every March. The app NCAA March Madness Live, managed by Turner Sports, delivered 22.5 million live video streams and 4.9 million live hours of video consumption last Thursday, according to Conviva data.
Both data marks are reportedly all-time records for the first Thursday of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. This year’s live video consumption is up 12% over 2015, Turner reports.
Thursday’s live streaming of Duke vs. UNC Wilmington totaled 5.5 million live video streams, which is also said to be an all-time record for an individual game during the NCAA Tournament. Additionally, Thursday’s NCAA Tournament coverage generated 1.6 million video views across official Facebook and Twitter social channels for March Madness, up 62% from last year.