NCAA Tournament Viewership Up
By NewsTeamLast Updated on March 26, 2013
From IMG College…
The NCAA Tournament is off to its best start in viewership in 23 years. A highly entertaining mix of marquee names, scrappy underdogs, the overlooked, and the schools no one saw coming is bringing a 6.3 average rating to the tournament – the most viewers since the event expanded to its current format.
On Sunday, across all networks (CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV), NCAA Tournament coverage averaged a very strong 7.6 overnight – the best average for the first Sunday of the tourney since ’93. Highlights as reported by Sports Business Daily:
- Kansas’ win over North Carolina on CBS led all weekend games with a 7.3 overnight Nielsen rating (+14% from comparable 2012 game)
- Indiana’s win over Temple earned a 7.2 overnight (+20%)
- Ohio State’s last-second win over Iowa State earned a 5.4 overnight in the early Sunday CBS window (+26%).
- Florida Gulf Coast’s win over San Diego State earned a 2.8 overnight on TBS – the top-rated cable game of the weekend.
Each of the day parts across all four CBS/Turner networks showed a gain in viewers. Of note:.
- The first daytime window (12:00-2:45pm) drew it highest rating since ’02.
- The first primetime window (5:15-9:15pm) had its highest rating since ’91.
