March Madness: 12.6 Million Watch VCU, Kentucky Complete Final Four
Most For Regional Final Sunday Since 2005
Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 3/28/2011 4:49:42 PM
CBS's coverage of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship on March 27 averaged 12.6 million total viewers, the most for a Sunday regional final since 2005.
Black Rock's presentation of VCU upsetting Kansas and Kentucky outlasting North Carolina to join Butler and Connecticut at the Final Four in Houston on Saturday was up 6% from the 11.9 million watchers for the same day of the 2010 tourney, according to Nielsen data. It matched the 7.6 U.S. household rating/16 share that CBS scored last year on the corresponding Sunday.
This year's 12.6 million marked the highest viewer average for the Sunday regional finals since 2005, which featured UNC-Wisconsin and Michigan State-Kentucky, in a double overtime affair.
CBS and Turner Sports' exclusive live coverage of the 2011 tourney across four networks has averaged 9.4 million watchers to date, 11% ahead of last year's 8.5 million on CBS and stands as the most-watched since 2005.
TBS, CBS, TNT and TruTV, including the inaugural First Four, averaged a 6.0/13, an11% increase from a 5.4/12 for 2010, according to Nielsen Fast Nationals. Those deliveries are the NCAA Tournament's tops through the Sunday regional finals since a 6.3/14 in 2005.
With their 14-year, $10.8 billion rights deal with the NCAA, the media companies are for the first time in the tourney's 73-year history presenting every game in its own national window. Previously, CBS showed the tourney in a whip-around fashion.
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