McDowell: March Madness a major driver of broadband adoption

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell used his love of the NCAA tournament to show the already rapid growth of broadband. Blair Levin, head of the FCC's broadband task force, presented the plan to the commission this morning.

"We should be mindful that Blair and his team are presenting this plan to Congress during a tumultuous time. And I don't mean health care reform. I mean March Madness," he joked.

"It should be obvious to policy makers everywhere that March Madness...could be the killer app needed to accelerate broadband access to ubiquity by 2020."

After all, last year, 7.5 million unique visitors viewed March Madness on Demand, and 8.6 million hours of video and audio were consumed. He referenced the popular "boss button," that lets cubicle workers immediately hide the basketball footage on their computer screen if their supervisors approach their desk.

"This is the kind of market-driven solution to increased adoption," he said.