Ratings Roundup: A Deep Dive Into March Madness Numbers; UConn-Baylor in NCAA Women's Tournament Hits Ten-Year High By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Thursday, April 1, 2021 - 8:57 am
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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, a deep dive into the numbers of the 2021 March Madness, UConn vs. Baylor smashes a ten-year watermark, YES Network finishes with the best Spring Training in 13 years, Formula 1 on ESPN gets off to a hot start in Bahrain, and more.
March Madness 2021 First Four and Early Rounds
The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament kicked off to a great start during the First Four with several all-time milestones, including a gross audience of 7.6 million viewers consuming the games across TBS, truTV, NCAA March Madness Live and TV Everywhere platforms.
The First Four telecasts, which aired on TBS and truTV, generated an increase of 24% vs. the previous record audience in 2014. Live game coverage also garnered a double-digit increase among all key demographics (Men & People 18-34, 18-49 & 25-54).
Additional records include UCLA vs. Michigan State on TBS becoming the most-watched First Four game since the format was introduced in 2011, with an average of three million viewers. The telecast peaked with an average of 3.3 million viewers from 11-11:15 p.m. ET. (WarnerMedia)
As the tournament progressed, the first four days of action (Thursday-Saturday) averaged 8.5 million viewers across CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV, down 3% from 2019 when compared to the comparable Tuesday-Saturday window. While down from that opening time frame two years ago, the tourney is up 3% from the Tuesday-Saturday window in 2018. (SportsBusiness Journal)
Other reports show that circumstances around the tournament have hurt this year's ratings. With the absence of high-profile teams like UNC and Duke, plus a shift in the broadcast schedule, overall deliveries for the first two rounds were down 12% compared to the analogous period in 2019. Through the second round, CBS and the three WarnerMedia cable nets (TNT, TBS, truTV) averaged 8.01 million viewers across the sales windows, which marks a loss of some 1.05 million viewers compared to the 9.06 million viewers who tuned in during the comparable period in 2019. (Sportico)
On the digital end, live streaming numbers have been favorable. The first two rounds of the tournament saw more than 1 billion minutes total streamed for all 32 games. Day one saw 15% more time spent streaming than day two, but that is historically in line with past tournaments. Also, the first day of the tournament took place during a Friday with games starting around noon and hitting peaks around 3 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. ET. The second day of games took place on a Saturday and saw its streaming peak occur around 9:15 p.m. ET. (TVTechnology)
Sweet 16
In the Sweet 16, six of the eight games increased in ratings and viewership over 2019 due to the standalone format that was used this year.
Saturday's Houston-Syracuse game on TBS posted the biggest jump, rising 37% in ratings (to 3.0) and 55% in viewership (to 5.52M). The comparable window in 2019 - Virginia-Oregon (2.2, 3.56M) - aired in a Thursday night window opposite a higher rated Texas Tech-Michigan game on CBS.
The TBS games were the biggest beneficiaries of the scheduling change, no surprise as the network usually places second to CBS when they air competing games. Ratings and viewership jumped 31% and 40% respectively for USC-Oregon Sunday night (2.7, 4.79M), 15% and 16% for the preceding Alabama-UCLA game (3.7, 6.51M) and 8% and 22% for Arkansas-Oral Roberts on Saturday (3.2, 5.94M).
Alabama-UCLA ranks as the most-watched Sweet 16 game on TBS since Wisconsin-North Carolina in 2015 (6.89M).
CBS aired the top game of the weekend in Michigan-Florida State Sunday evening (5.1, 9.03M), but ratings fell 16% and viewership 10% from Zion Williamson-led Duke against Virginia Tech on a Friday night in 2019 (6.05, 10.07M). Despite the drop, the Wolverines' win ranks as the most-watched basketball game, college or pro, since Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals - and the first since 2019 to crack a 5.0 rating. The network also saw a drop for Oregon State's Saturday afternoon upset of Loyola-Chicago (3.4, 5.74M), down 15% and 11% respectively from the corresponding Thursday night game in 2019 (Gonzaga-FSU: 4.03, 6.48M).
Baylor-Villanova (4.2, 7.54M) increased 10% in ratings and 24% in viewership over the comparable Thursday window in 2019 (Texas Tech-Michigan: 3.8, 6.11M). Gonzaga-Creighton rose 9% and 15% respectively over the comparable Friday window in '19 (Michigan State-LSU: 3.6, 5.79M). (SportsMediaWatch)
Elite 8
The schedule change did not fare well for the four Elite 8 games. Pushed to the workweek as part of this year's revised NCAA Tournament schedule, all four men's Elite Eight games declined double-digits from the comparable windows in 2019, when the games aired on the weekend.
Tuesday's UCLA-Michigan regional final on TBS posted the steepest decline, its audience of 6.89 million down 57% from the corresponding game in 2019 - Michigan State's upset of Zion Williamson-led Duke in a Sunday afternoon window on CBS (16.20M).
The Bruins' upset win delivered the largest audience of the Elite Eight, marking the first time in recent memory that no game in the round cracked the seven million viewer mark. By comparison, all four games in 2019 averaged at least seven million. In a typical year, the most-watched game of the round delivers a Final Four-level audience in the 15 million range.
Gonzaga-USC averaged 5.40 million earlier in the night, down 49% from Auburn-Kentucky on CBS in 2019 (10.49M) and the least-watched Elite Eight game on
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Ratings Roundup: A Deep Dive Into March Madness Numbers; UConn-Baylor in NCAA Women's Tournament Hits Ten-Year High By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
