Tiger Woods Set to Return at Augusta National
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Updated: Fri 4/2/2010 12:16 pm
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CBSSports.com and Masters.com plan to run 86 hours of live online video for next
week's Masters tournament, a 50% increase from a year ago, and site execs expect
a large spike in traffic due in part to the strong likelihood of Tiger Woods
playing part or perhaps much of his Thursday and Friday rounds during business
hours, when access to TVs is more limited.
Traditional online coverage featuring
play from holes 11-13, 15-16 and an hour of coverage each day before TV
broadcasts from Augusta National Golf Club begin will be joined this year by a
"Featured Group" element. The new feature will take pairings of Augusta
National's choosing following this Tuesday's draw, and follow them live through
the back nine of the course.
ESPN will air Woods' first tee shot on Thursday,
but otherwise, live TV coverage does not begin until 4:00pm ET those two days.
The Masters Live coverage of Amen Corner will begin at 10:45am Thursday and
Friday coverage of the 15th and 16th holes at 11:45am and the featured group at
noon. CBS and Augusta National traditionally have not released specific traffic
figures around the online Masters coverage, but the event traditionally ranks
among the highest online events distributed by the network each year in terms of
consumption metrics such as time spent per user. CBSSports.com Senior VP &
GM Jason Kint said, "The Masters continues to grow online every year, and we're
expecting another strong showing this time around." AT&T and Unilever will
advertise on Masters Live (Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal).
