March On: CBS’ Tournament Coverage Tracking Ahead Of ‘06

CBS’ Overnight Ratings Up 3.6% For NCAA Tournament Through First Four Days

CBS is averaging a 5.8/13 overnight Nielsen rating through the first four days of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, up 3.6% from a 5.6/12. Saturday’s 3:30-6:30pm ET window drew a 6.8/16 overnight, up 11% from last year’s comparable 6.1/14 and the best rating in the window since a 7.1/19 in ’88. Overall, Saturday’s coverage earned a 6.8/15 overnight, up 6% from a 6.4/14 last year. CBS’ coverage on Thursday and Friday averaged a 5.0/11 overnight, up 2% from last year’s 4.9/11 and the best two-day average since ’91 (THE DAILY).

REVIEWS: In Dallas, Barry Horn wrote the best thing about CBS’ coverage was “basic, old-school, production values.” CBS offered “basic camera angles of action on the court, forsaking skycams, cable cams, painted faces in the crowd and sideline reporters who offer prepackaged pablum and nothing of substance” (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 3/17). In Toronto, Chris Zelkovich adds there were a “minimal number of those loons-in-the-stands shots during game coverage and the cameras seemed to be trained on what was happening on the hardwood” (TORONTO STAR, 3/19). USA TODAY’s Michael Hiestand writes CBS studio analyst Clark Kellogg “continues to offer up words he presumably invented,” and game announcer Gus Johnson “seems to be getting intermittent shock therapy while he’s trying to call basketball. Someone should lower the voltage.” Meanwhile, CBS put the game’s score box in a bar on the bottom instead of in the corner, which was “an improvement” (USA TODAY, 3/19). In N.Y., Phil Mushnick wrote announcer Kevin Harlan is “hollering his way through another NCAA tournament.” At the end of VCU-Duke on Thursday he said, “You have just seen the biggest upset of the first round of the NCAA tournament!” At that point it was the only upset (N.Y. POST, 3/18).

MARKET COMPLAINTS: Viewers watching Albany’s WRGB HD feed of Virginia-Albany on Friday “were switched away briefly” during the first half to Memphis-North Texas, and when it switched back the feed was not in HD. The HD feed returned with 17:28 remaining in the second half “before leaving for good” about four minutes later. CBS Sports VP/Communications LeslieAnne Wade said that WRGB “was using the wrong signal,” but WRGB GM Bob Furlong said that the “network was responsible for making the switches.” The flex feeds are distributed in HD and the constant feed, which is received by “only a small portion of the total audience, is not.” Wade: “There’s just not the capacity to protect those home markets in HD yet. By next year, there may be” (Albany TIMES UNION, 3/17). The DALLAS MORNING NEWS’ Horn wrote the worst thing about CBS’ coverage was “hometown markets like Dallas-Ft. Worth watching [Memphis-North Texas] were deprived” of watching the game in HD (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 3/17). In San Jose, John Ryan notes Oregon had a sizable lead on Winthrop with 16:43 remaining at the same time Purdue led Florida by two points with 6:54 left and UNLV-Wisconsin were tied with 9:59 to go. Ryan: “Perfect time for a switch, except we were stuck with this blowout-in-the-making for two more minutes,” as CBS is “going to make sure we’re treated to our TV timeouts” (MERCURY NEWS, 3/19).

Writer Feels MMOD Is Good Way To Keep Up On All Tournament Action

MMOD REVIEWS: SBD staffers had generally positive experiences with March Madness On Demand this weekend. The application usually functioned properly, although the picture was certainly not TV quality. Also, during Texas A&M-Louisville on Saturday afternoon, the picture often froze up. We also noticed the action on MMOD was typically one possession behind the ticker on the TV screen (THE DAILY). In Chicago, Ed Sherman wrote whether he was using his desktop or laptop on Thursday, the video “constantly froze and skipped frames.” A CBS SportsLine.com spokesperson “was surprised to hear of my problems since everything seemed to be going fine with the users who were on the system at his location.” He said, “I’d be flooded with calls if people weren’t getting in” (CHICAGOSPORTS.com, 3/16). In Columbia, Steve Wiseman “found a couple glitches” with MMOD, but reported a “mostly good experience” on Thursday and Friday. While using the Mozilla Firefox browser, the screen would go black “about every 30 seconds.” It also “offered no option to view the game on a full screen.” But using Internet Explorer “alleviated those problems.” Wiseman: “While it was not as good as watching a game on television, it was a good way to keep up with all the action” (Columbia STATE, 3/18).