Heading into Final Four action, Warner Media LLC's Turner Sports and Paramount Global's CBS Sports, as well as ESPN Inc., have registered double-digit audience gains with their respective telecasts of the 2022 men's and women's versions of March Madness.
The programmers are planning additional network coverage of the upcoming marquee college basketball matchups this weekend.
TBS (US), CBS (US), TNT (US) and truTV (US) have netted a combined audience of 9.66 million viewers per game window for the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. That represents a 13% rise year over year, according to data from Nielsen Holdings PLC 2021's tournament played out entirely in Indiana due to the pandemic and featured games in nontraditional windows, including Elite Eight games airing in prime time Monday and Tuesday rather than Saturday and Sunday.
Measured against the 2019 event, 2022 tournament viewership is down 1%. The 2020 event was canceled.
Similar trends are afoot from a game perspective as this year's tournament has averaged 3.84 million viewers per contest, according to Nielsen data, 13% ahead of the 2021 mark and off 1% from 2019.
Women's wrap-up
Combined coverage of the women's tourney on ESPN (US), ESPN2 (US), ESPNU (US), ESPNews (US) and ABC (US) has averaged 465,000 viewers through the Elite Eight round, according to Nielsen data, an 11% advance from 418,000 in 2021.
Viewership surged for the four regional final games, rising 29% to 1.53 million watchers, from 1.19 million in 2021.
Tournament totals also reflect the inclusion of the First Four play-in games for the first time, with Florida State-Missouri State setting the pace among this quartet with 150,000 watchers on ESPN2.
Blue Bloods rule
During a press call earlier this month, John Bogusz, executive vice president of sports sales and marketing of CBS network sales, said that while upsets by Cinderella teams can stoke tournament interest, viewership benefits the most from strong showings by blue-blood programs.
St. Peter's became the darling of this year's tournament as the first No. 15 seed to reach the Elite Eight before its run ended in the East regional final against North Carolina.
The Tar Heels' March 27 blowout of the Peacocks averaged 13.6 million watchers on CBS, the most for the tourney to date. UNC's victory means it will face rival Duke in the Final Four on April 2. The game is significant because it is the teams' first-ever NCAA tournament meeting and it is the final season for the Blue Devils' legendary coach, Mike Krzyzewski.
As to the other Final Four pair, perennial powers Kansas and Villanova will clash April 2 in New Orleans. The winners of each Final Four game meet April 4.
Minneapolis "MegaCast"
The women's event should benefit from a strong field in Minneapolis. Top-ranked South Carolina will meet Louisville, the No. 1 seed from the Wichita, Kan., region, in the first game April 1. UConn, which has earned a record 11 women's national championships, will look to dethrone defending titlist Stanford in the nightcap. The title tilt is slated for April 3.
ESPN will deliver "MegaCast" linear and streaming presentations around the women's Final Four for the first time. The multi-telecast format shares game content across multiple linear and streaming networks with differentiated lead-ins and talent depending on each participating network's targeted demographic. This MegaCast strategy aims to provide additional content to fans and expand overall viewership.
ESPN's main feed coverage of the three games will be flanked by "The Bird & Taurasi Show" on ESPNU during the semifinals and ESPN2 on the title tilt. Streamer ESPN+ will simulcast all of the linear telecasts. During the show, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi — teammates at UConn and in the Olympics and WNBA rivals — will provide their takes with help from guests from the sports and entertainment worlds.
ESPN+ will also be home to "beyond the rim" coverage, affording users aerial camera views and enhanced statistics over main telecast commentary, and "on the rail action," tracking full-length court coverage with natural arena sounds, plus replays.
Turner simulcasts
Turner Sports will simulcast TBS' Final Four and championship game coverage on truTV and TNT. In tournaments past, "Team Streams," with different announcers and coverage oriented toward the participating schools, ran on truTV and TNT, supplementing TBS' main telecasts.
The three feeds will be cumulated in terms of overall audience delivery for the marquee matchups.
Under their rights deal with the NCAA, CBS Sports and Turner Sports alternate annual coverage of the Final Four and championship games.
