First batch of preliminary TV ratings for the tournament are in, up 9% over last season nationally
The first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament may have been light on upsets, with virtually all the high seeds prevailing easily, but it was heavy on viewers.
Thursday’s opening-round coverage on CBS was up 9 percent compared to last year, according to Nielsen overnights, from an average 4.3 household rating and 10 share to a 4.7/10.
All but one of the day’s four windows of games saw improvement versus 2008, with the second afternoon telecast up 0.4, to a 3.7, the second-highest rating in the past four years, and the two primetime windows both up 0.5.
That wasn’t the only area where CBS saw year-to-year improvements. Its March Madness on Demand online platform recorded its best-ever opening-day traffic as well.
The site’s video player drew 2.7 million unique visitors, up 56 percent versus last year. Those visitors watched 2.8 million hours of live video and audio streaming, 65 percent better than last year.
Media Life Magazine - Solid early bounce for March Madness
I was curious to see those because just a little while ago I got the weekend numbers in detail for Atlanta which were very different, down game to game across the board in 25-54, significantly by Sunday (game 2 Sunday down 3.8 to 2.4, last game down from 4.2 to 3.5).
Curious thing I noticed too, all of the CBS lineup from 60 Minutes through Cold Case up in Atlanta by more than double vs last year, with
60 Minutes posting a 5.5 vs a 3.5 for the game while last year the game had a 4.2 that dropped to a 2.6. Downright peculiar looking stuff, even for a market that frequently runs contrary to the national numbers.
I imagine the games themselves probably account for the drop here, last year on Sunday you had Tennessee in the middle game, UNC in the finale while this year was Pittsburgh followed by Louisville.