By U-Wire
BATON ROUGE, La. With 32 men’s basketball games in two days, office workers, gamblers, college students and casual fans have the opportunity to follow more than just the game televised in their area.
But there is hope for those with tighter wallets who cannot afford satellite feeds and those with jobs who can’t get off work.
CBS SportsLine, the agency that launched March Madness On Demand, has decided to offer the promotion free of charge this year.
March Madness On Demand is a CBS promotion that broadcasts every men’s NCAA basketball tournament game on the Internet.
Before this year, participants were charged $19.95 to watch the games.
“The advertising support that we got a sense from was very strong,” said Alex Riethmiller, CBS spokesman. “We could get a much bigger audience if we offered the service for free.”
March Madness On Demand is ideal for those who want to watch out-of-market games.
Riethmiller said CBS signed an exclusive deal with the NCAA that gives CBS the rights to be the only station that can broadcast the NCAA Tournament games.
CBS and the NCAA invented March Madness On Demand last season to let fans outside of a target-market view another game at the same time over the Internet.
Riethmiller said the service will be offered in two forms: VIP passes and general admission passes. Both are free.
VIP passes are given to the first to sign up.
Riethmiller said there are a limited number of VIP passes.
“By the time this gets printed, we’ll probably be at full capacity,” Riethmiller said.
As of 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, VIP capacity was at 97.4 percent.
Once VIP passes run out, people who sign up will get general admission passes.
The difference between VIP and general admission passes will matter if CBS’s Web sites become overcrowded.
If Internet traffic gets overcrowded, participants will be sent to separate Web pages called “waiting rooms.”
When more room opens up on the server, VIP pass holders get the first opportunity to watch the game followed by the general admission pass holders.
March Madness On Demand can be accessed through the CBS SportsLine Web site, cbs.sportsline.com or ncaasports.com/mmod.
As the tournament rolls on, fans are winners no matter if their favorite team wins or loses.

Adrian Uter play host to Nebraska in the NIT tonight at 7 p.m.