Women’s college basketball “believes it has the makings for a hit reality TV show with star power driving a marketable product that has a growing audience,” according to Doug Feinberg of the AP. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley believes the question of whether women’s hoops merits its own March Madness TV contract “has already been answered, even though the women’s tournament loses money under the current deal.” Staley said, “Somebody feels like we’re in high demand, and obviously the decision-makers that put us on now realize that they’ve got to keep putting us on.” Feinberg notes this year's women’s title game will be broadcast on ABC -- the “first appearance on network television since 1995.” Women’s basketball is “part of a current contract that bundles all NCAA championships under one deal except for men’s basketball and football.” The NCAA is “expected to decide by the fall if the women’s tournament will become a separate entity” after hiring Endeavor to determine “how to take championships to market.” TV ratings have been “trending up” over the last two years. This year’s regular season “was the most viewed on ESPN networks in eight years and was up 11% from last season” (AP, 3/23).
BACK TO BACK: JUST WOMEN'S SPORTS' Kate Yanchulis noted for the "second consecutive season" the first two rounds of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament set a new attendance record of 231,677 fans. Last season, the first- and second-round games brought in 216,890 fans. Tickets for the first- and second-round games at Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye arena "sold out in just 53 minutes" when they went on sale the Monday before the tournament. ESPN announced on Tuesday that “not only did the tournament see a 6.8% increase in attendance across the first two rounds, the first round also saw a 27% increase in viewership, up to an average of 257,000 per game” (JUST WOMEN’S SPORTS, 3/22).
BUZZCAST: SBJ's Abe Madkour goes over the uptick in women's NCAA Tournament viewership in today's Buzzcast (1:01-2:12).
