Makin' March Madness Money

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As the NCAA trimmed its basketball tournament hopefuls to 16 remaining teams, who do you think will win? No, you can put your office pool scorecard and brackets away. I'm talking about corporate winners here.

A lot has often been made about the lack of worker productivity during these distracting times. Industry watcher Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimates that companies miss out on $1.5 billion in production as employees are following their favorite teams and tracking their typically illegal betting pools.

But the game is also about big business being made. Viacom (NYSE: VIA) takes its CBS broadcasting rights seriously enough to ship out its popular Thursday night lineup of Survivor and CSI to an earlier night.

Having CBS as a backer also helps CBS SportsLine.com (Nasdaq: SPLN). Last year, the company generated $6 million in online advertising money related to the hoops tournament through its namesake site, as well as its managing of the NCAASports.com domain. Last March, the NCAASports site drew 2.5 million unique visitors. That figure should climb as more homes and companies are Internet-enabled this year.

While not a pure play, Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ESPN.com -- now being run under Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) MSN.com banner -- is another beneficiary of the Web's growing role as a sporting news provider. Disney's ESPN itself also won't be smarting much in the ratings game, given its meaty coverage of the road to the Final Four.

What about the sponsors? While they usually get what they pay for, you have to give some style points to companies like General Motors (NYSE: GM) that embed themselves into the actual programming. With the Pontiac All-Time Tournament Team poll that is currently taking place the country's leading car maker is in the thick of the tourney excitement.

So don't let that busted bracket get you down. There are plenty of companies looking to capitalize on that lack of productivity around the workplace.

Are you watching the Sweet 16 action this week, or have you given up now that your favorite team has been handed an early exit? Who do you think has what it takes to win it all this year? All this and more -- in the College Hoops discussion board. Only on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is bummed that his alma mater -- University of Miami -- had a miserable basketball season and didn't even come close to qualifying for the tournament. He owns shares in Disney but no other company mentioned in this story.