Down And Out: ’05-06 Men’s NCAA Basketball Ratings

The following presents NCAA men’s basketball regular-season Nielsen ratings, with comparisons to past seasons. Four of the five nets with NCAA coverage were either down or even with last year. While FSN’s ACC package posted a 26.6% decline, the net’s Pac-10 package posted the only ratings gain of the season and earned its second-highest average rating ever (THE DAILY).

	———'05-06———		———'04-05———		%+/- IN RATINGS
NET	AVG. RAT/ SHR (000s)	TEL.^	AVG. RAT/ SHR (000s)	TEL.^	('05-06 VS. '04-05)	('05-06 VS. '03-04)
CBS	1.7/4	30	1.9/5	29	-10.5%	-5.6%
ABC	1.2 (1,358)	5	1.6 (1,724)	7	-25.0%	-29.4%
ESPN	1.1 (965)	110	1.1 (966)	113	0.0%	10.0%
ESPN2	0.5 (423)	124	0.5 (425)	121	0.0%	0.0%
FSN (ACC)	0.47 (339)	20	0.64 (483)	19	-26.6%	-21.7%
FSN (Pac-10)	0.34 (259)	14	0.31(212)	14	9.7%	36.0%

NOTES: ^ = Due to regional coverage, ABC and CBS figures represent number of windows in which the networks aired NCAA men’s basketball....CBS’ ratings do not include conference-championship coverage....Cable network marks are coverage area ratings....ESPN networks do not provide marks to the hundredth decimal.