Ratings Roundup: March Madness Drives Ratings to New Highs
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Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week’s edition, March Madness takes viewership to highs across all platforms and networks.
March Madness: TV Ratings Slightly Up Over Last Year Despite Sunday’s Blowouts
The first three days of the NCAA Tournament attracted record ratings, only to see the momentum stifled due to Sunday’s games being blowouts.
Overall, the tournament is averaging 9.07 million viewers on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. That is a slight increase over the 9.05 million average at this point last year.
Through Saturday, the tournament averaged 9.0 million, making it the most-watched through that stage.
Sunday’s games averaged 8.91 million, an 8% decrease over last year. The average winning margin of the eight games was 18.9 points, including Duke’s 93-55 blowout of James Madison and Purdue’s 106-67 rout of Utah State, both on CBS.
Saturday’s eight second-round games averaged 10.8 million, making it the most-watched second round Saturday in tournament history. The Michigan State-North Carolina game — an 85-59 victory by the Tar Heels — drew 10.02 million, the most-watched, second-round Saturday game since Kentucky-Indiana in 2016.
Thursday’s first round averaged 8.5 million, the most-watched since 2015. Friday’s averaged 8.6 million, the second-most just behind last year’s 8.8 million.
ESPN Platforms Score Record Performance in Women’s NCAA Championship Second Round
- Second Round games averaged 1.4 million viewers across ESPN platforms, becoming the most-watched Second Round on record
- Viewership is up 121% year-over-year, including ESPN recording its most-viewed Second Round on record with an average of 1.5 million viewers across two days
- Tennessee/NC State and South Carolina/UNC each averaged 1.2 million to rank within the Top 10 most-watched games on record
- 2024 Women’s NCAA Division I Women’s Championship is averaging 812,000 viewers through this point, up 108%
- The Championship has amassed 4.2 billion total minutes, marking the most-consumed early rounds on record
March Madness Has Best Viewing Ever Through First 5 Days, Averaging 9M
Through the first five days of NCAA “March Madness” averaged 9.0 million Nielsen-measured across CBS, TBS, TNT, and TruTV, according to the NCAA — the best results ever for the tournament over that period.
Thursday’s first-round game average of 8.5 million viewers was up 1% from a year ago (8.4 million) — the most-watched opening day of the first round since 2015. Friday’s average was down 7% to 8.6 million viewers (second most ever for a Friday)
Saturday’s night games averaged 10.8 million, which was the best viewership for the first day of the second round ever.
The most-viewed first-round games include the Thursday upset win by Oakland over Kentucky averaging 6.2 million viewers and Friday’s upset win by James Madison over Wisconsin (5.2 million).
From March 20 through March 24, total impressions for four networks were up 8% to 14.2 billion from the year before, according to EDO Ad EnGage.
Major TV advertising brands on the networks: AT&T Wireless, Geico, Progressive Insurance, GMC, Capital One, Invesco, Start Farm, Home Depot, Nissan, and Coca-Cola.
ESPN Platforms Deliver Most-Watched Women’s NCAA Tournament First Round on Record
- First Round action amassed 1.5 billion total minutes viewed, most-consumed First Round on record
- Viewership was up 83% year-over-year, including a 241% increase year-over-year on ABC
- ESPN recorded its most viewed First Round since 2018
- 3.2 million viewers
- Best pre-semifinal women’s NCAA tournament audience on record
- 1.1 million viewers on ABC for JSU vs UConn
- Third most-viewed first round game on record
- 819,000 viewers on ESPN tuned into GB vs. Tenn
- Second best first round game on ESPN
- 762,400 viewers for LSU vs Rice
- Most-watched weekday game first round game on record
ESPN’s Audience for Major League Baseball’s Seoul Series Coverage Up 46 Percent From Same Broadcast Window
ESPN’s average audience for Major League Baseball’s Seoul Series games was up 46 percent from its standard 6 a.m. – 9 a.m. ET broadcast window, according to Nielsen. The two-game slate averaged 370,000 viewers for the 6 a.m. games.
The first game, on Wednesday, March 20, averaged 350,000 viewers, and the audience rose for the second game on Thursday, March 21, with 387,000 viewers on average. The Seoul Series peaked at 9:30 a.m. on March 21 with an average audience of 551,000 viewers.
The games were subject to local blackout restrictions in the Los Angeles Dodgers home market.
ESPN’s MLB coverage continues on Thursday, March 28, at 7:30 p.m. with the exclusive national presentation of MLB Opening Night: the reigning World Series Champion Texas Rangers host the Chicago Cubs.
