Bracket backing: Selection shows get sponsors, but few viewers

The NCAA’s Corporate Champion and Corporate Partner companies (in bold below) had a greater ad presence during CBS’s unveiling of the men’s basketball tournament bracket on Sunday, March 12, than they did during ESPN’s unveiling of the women’s bracket, which aired for the first time this year on a Monday, March 13. Ratings for both shows were down compared with last year.

Note: ESPN marks are coverage-area ratings.
* Overnight rating, compared with 2005 overnight of 5.7/11. Final rating was not available at Media Tracker press time.
NA: Not available at Media Tracker press time.

AD SUPPORT
CBS/men's bracket
Company/brand	Per company: Total ad time (no. of spots)
Cisco Systems, Pontiac	1:00 (2)
Merrill Lynch	1:00 (1)
Coca-Cola, Enterprise	0:30 (2)
Applebee's, AT&T, CDW, Cingular, Infiniti, Kraft (DiGiorno), Lowe's, Mazda,	0:30 (1)
McDonald's, Sonic, Staples, State Farm, SunCom, The Hartford, T. Rowe Price, U.S. Army, DirecTV	0:10 (1)
ESPN/women's bracket
Company/brand	Per company: Total ad time (no. of spots)
State Farm	1:30 (3)
PepsiCo (Diet Mountain Dew), Unilever (Degree Men), YellowPages.com	1:00 (2)
Proctor & Gamble (Metamucil Plus Calcium)	0:30 (2)
Allstate, Cisco Systems, Coca-Cola, Hotels.com, Marriott (Courtyard),	0:30 (1)
MSNBC ("Countdown"), NCAA, Pontiac, Steak 'n Shake, Suzuki, YellowBook.com

Note: Ad rundowns do not include sponsored segments of the broadcast or network promotions.
Sources: SportsBusiness Daily archives, Charlotte feeds of WBTV-CBS and Time Warner Cable.
Research by: Katherine Johnson-Reid and Paul Sanford, SportsBusiness Daily