Final Four ready for Indianapolis

For CBS (CBS), this year's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament has been a resounding success. March Madness proved to be just that in the early rounds of the tournament, with several high profile upsets, Overtimes and nail-biting finishes.

CBS television ratings have generally been the victor, beating American Idol on the first night of the tournament and hardly looking back. Another success story for the College Basketball brand and network, it's online free-for-all. Each year, March Madness on Demand has exhibited exceptional growth. The completely free ad-supported streaming model had 30% growth over 2009, which is nothing to sneeze at. That equates to 3 Million unique viewers who watched 3.4 Million hours on the first day of the tournament alone. Consider also the streaming iPhone app was a top seller and this online thing is starting to really make a bit of money for the old network.

With the Final Four this year being a balance of known and unknown -Michigan State, Duke, Butler and West Virginia- CBS is hopeful tournament momentum carries it throughout the weekend games and National Championship for another successful and exciting College Basketball Championship.

Also on tap for this weekend, Apple's (AAPL) highly anticipated launch of the iPad, the table computer based on iPhone software that has been selling out pre-orders all over America. Analysts are increasingly bullish on sales prospects for the iPad with initial first year shipment targets moving from 3-5 Million into the 8-10 Million range.

According to one analyst, Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley, who has been written about here before and let's face it hasn't had the best of records when it comes to Apple picking (Link), Apple's suppliers are on pace to build 8-10 Million units this year and each Million sold will represent an additional $0.25/share in earnings. It has been this bullish tone lately with the iPad that has pushed Apple shares to all time highs in the $230s.

Disclosure: Author owns AAPL.

Final Four is set, ready for CBS!

The grandest stage in College Basketball was once again a rousing success for television network CBS Corp (CBS). Year after year the NCAA tournament is filled with drama, action, heartbreak and incredible performances, just about everything a television network would want from one of its prime-time tv shows.

Now, although the later stages of the tournament this year lacked a glass-slipper boasting Cinderella, the games attracted an impressive audience, especially online. With the help of Akamai Technologies (AKAM), CBC was able to stream all the tournament games in the highest quality it had ever streamed the event before and the results were impressive. A few statistics from BusinessInsider (Link) show traffic up 57% year over year, and streamed content up 65% on the CBS website. Certain advertising opportunities, such as the "Boss Button" also showed impressive gains with 25% growth in clicks. In comparison, for the first days of the tournament CBS saw increased television ratings of 4%.

What does this all add up to? Well for North Carolina, UConn, Michigan State and Villanova, a chance to play on the biggest stage for a National Basketball Title. For shareholders of CBS, whose value has declined over 80% in 1 year, in the midst of the recession, operating losses and dividend cuts, the hope is for a continued spark from the tournament. However this spike has all but fizzled along with the market. Today's 13% decline has given back most of the gains made by CBS in the last 2 weeks.

With the economy still lurking in a grim down-turn and advertising being hard to come by, it is the major events that still attract audiences and advertisers and CBS has a tent-pole with March Madness. But, by the numbers, for my money the audience is moving online, and companies like content delivery network Akamai increasingly stand to benefit as higher-quality (read: more expensive) live streaming and content downloads build out an even more expansive user base in the years to come.

Disclosure: Author does not own any of the companies mentioned

Markets end week with Rally as March Madness begins

It's that time of year again. College Basketball's best take the court all month long for a chance at a National Basketball Championship. The NCAA March Madness tournament begins this year at the onset of a long weekend for Traders.

With markets closing and options expiring this week, Trading was in flux but positive. Following a rough day for the Dow Wednesday, a rebound rally carried on as Investors poured money back in, sending the major indices higher by over 2%. Money flowed into the Financials once again as they continued to be the most volatile investments of late.

Good luck with your brackets Traders!