[JonInMiddleGA]

Media Life Magazine - On CBS, let March Madness begin

The men’s NCAA basketball tournament tips off in earnest today at noon on CBS, after Tuesday’s inconsequential play-in game, with two top seeds in action and many traditional powers, including North Carolina and Duke, favored to do well.

Whether the tourney will draw higher ratings this year, with money-strapped viewers looking for cheap entertainment, remains to be seen, though it’s generally the storylines that draw in more people. When popular teams like UNC and the Blue Devils do well, ratings tend to rise, despite the perception that Cinderella teams fuel strong ratings. (They don’t.)

Last year 136.8 million people tuned in to at least one minute of the tourney, and 24.6 million households watched some portion of the first-round games. All told, 56 million households tuned into at least a few minutes of a March Madness game, according to Nielsen.

The company also found that, over the past five years, Louisville has been the biggest regional NCAA viewer. The market has generated an average rating of 19.0 for the tourney, six full points ahead of second-place Raleigh-Durham, home to Duke and North Carolina. Memphis, Cincinnati and Columbus round out the top five hoops markets.

African-American households are also more likely to tune into the game than the average household. Since 2004, black households have had a 28 percent higher rating for March Madness than the national average, including up 35 percent last year.

As for which teams would score the biggest ratings for the final, CBS should be cheering for a team from Michigan. The top three most-watched finals – 1979, 1992 and 1993 – all featured a Michigan team, either the Wolverines or the Spartans. Both teams made this year’s tourney.