US cable-television broadcaster Turner Broadcasting System is introducing a charge for viewers for online coverage of the annual National Collegiate Athletic Association Men's Division I Basketball Championship – the “March Madness” tournament – in an effort to drive take-up of the TV Everywhere internet television initiative.
TV Everywhere is a US pay-television industry-wide initiative to get pay-television subscribers to register, or “authenticate”, their subscriptions online, so they can access pay-television content over the internet as well as via cable or satellite television at no extra charge.
Viewers who have not authenticated their pay-television subscriptions will have to pay a one-off fee of $3.99 (€3.02) to stream Turner’s coverage of this year’s March Madness tournament, which runs from March 13 to April 2. Subscribers who have authenticated their subscription will be able to watch at no extra charge.
Turner is hoping the paywall will drive viewers to sign up to TV Everywhere, and also put pressure on distributors to market the service more aggressively. According to the Los Angeles Times, less than half of the 77 million cable subscriptions in the United States have been authenticated through TV Everywhere.
“The $3.99 product is not about raising money,” Matthew Hong, senior vice-president and general manager of Turner’s Sports Interactive division, told the New York Times. “It is an incentive to authenticate. We're honestly not going after cord-cutters [viewers who access cable-television without verified subscriptions].”
Turner shares rights for the tournament with the CBS network as part of a 14-year deal for coverage of NCAA events, from 2010-11 to 2023-24.
CBS’s online coverage will be available for free and will not require authentication through TV Everywhere.