SportsBusiness Daily — Sports Business Resources — your sports business news and information source. Learn More
Advanced
Home About Us Advertise With Us Marketplace/Classifieds College & University Program Subscribe/Trial My Account

Tuesday
April 1, 2008
Print This Issue


 
MOST VIEWED STORIES
View the top 20 stories
 
Recent Issues
Sports Media

CBS' NCAA Tournament Coverage Down 7.1% From Last Year

CBS' Ratings For NCAA Tournament Down
7.1% From Last Year's Comparable Window
CBS is averaging a 5.2/11 fast-national Nielsen rating through 60 games of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, down 7.1% from a 5.6/12 for the same window last year.  CBS notes that HUT levels for the tournament are down 5.2% from a year ago (THE DAILY). In N.Y., Benjamin Toff  reports CBS earned a primetime ratings victory for Sunday with a “boost from its afternoon coverage of the NCAA college basketball tournament.” The net’s coverage of the Kansas-Davidson game included a 23-minute overrun into the 7:00pm ET time slot, meaning “more than 17 million viewers were tuned in to CBS during the first half-hour of prime time” (N.Y. TIMES, 4/1). USA TODAY’s Michael Hiestand reports Kansas-Davidson was up 19% over the comparative Georgetown-North Carolina overtime game in ’07 (USA TODAY, 4/1).

WELL HEELED: With all four No. 1 seeds advancing to the Final Four, CBS News & Sports President Sean McManus said that the “best [ratings] formula is the top teams playing close games.” McManus: “Storied basketball tradition and close games: It’s a pretty unbeatable formula” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 4/1). CBS will lead its broadcast of the Final Four on Saturday with Memphis-UCLA at 6:07pm, followed by North Carolina-Kansas 40 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. McManus said the order of the games was “basically a group decision” between himself, CBS Sports Exec VP & Exec Producer Tony Petitti and CBS Sports Senior VP/Programming Mike Aresco. McManus: “We try to put the game we think has the most viewer appeal late in the evening to try to maximize the ratings. … It’s just based on the ratings strength of what North Carolina normally does when it is in a big game. We do look at ratings tracks and we notice that when North Carolina is in a national telecast, the ratings generally tend to be very, very strong” (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 4/1).


Get A Free Trial To SportsBusiness Daily

Reader Comments

To post comments on this article, log in or register for a free trial.

Related Stories By Company Related Stories By Sport
CBS Nearing 90% Mark For SB XLIV Ad Sales
November 19, 2009 : SportsBusiness Daily

Cowboys-Packers Earns Fox 16.9 Overnight
November 16, 2009 : SportsBusiness Daily

CBS Post-Super Bowl Program Up In Air
November 13, 2009 : SportsBusiness Daily

Cowboys-Eagles Deliver Big "SNF" Marks
November 10, 2009 : SportsBusiness Daily

Will CBS Air Future Strikeforce Cards?
November 10, 2009 : SportsBusiness Daily

San Diego State AD Jeff Schemmel Resigns
November 20, 2009 : SportsBusiness Daily

Ticket Package Offered For Flyers, 76ers
November 20, 2009 : SportsBusiness Daily

NBPA Says Total Player Compensation Down
November 20, 2009 : SportsBusiness Daily

Report: Minorities Not Getting Coaching Jobs
November 19, 2009 : SportsBusiness Daily

Magic Johnson, Cisco Team For Initiative
November 19, 2009 : SportsBusiness Daily

ALSO IN THIS SECTION


A Publication of Street & Smith's Sports Group.
Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (REVISED 2009-06-23) and Privacy Policy (REVISED 2009-06-23).

© 2009 Street & Smith's Sports Group and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Street & Smith's Sports Group.