Ratings Roundup: Before Sweet 16 Tips Off, 2019 March Madness Sits in Second as Most-Watched Tourney in 29 Years By Kristian Hernandez, Assistant Editor
Tuesday, March 26, 2019 - 9:00 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Ratings roundup is a rundown of rating news from the past week and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, the NCAA March Madness opening rounds smash live stream numbers and become the second most-watched tournament in 29 years, NCAA Selection Show sees its highest ratings in five years, the ACC tournament gives ESPN the two most-watched games in the history of the network's Champ Week coverage, and ESPN's regular season slate increases 15% from last year.
2019 March Madness is the Second Craziest Since 1991
Turner Sports and CBS Sports' coverage of the 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship continues to deliver significant audience increases across all platforms.
Live game coverage across TBS, CBS, TNT, and truTV is averaging a 6.4/15 HH rating/share in the metered markets, the second-highest rating through the first weekend since 1991, when the NCAA Tournament expanded to its current television format (6.7/14 in 2015). The 6.4/15 HH rating, based on Nielsen metered market delivery, is up 8% over last year (5.9/13).
NCAA March Madness Live has set all-time records in live streams and live hours of consumption for the NCAA Tournament to date, with both seeing increases of more than 25% through the first full week.
Additionally, Sunday's third game telecast window from 5:15-9:15 PM, ET, highlighted by Duke's down-to-the-wire victory over UCF, earned an 11.9/24 HH rating/share, up +35% from last year (8.8/18) and ranking as the second-highest rating for that game window in 29 years (12.1/23 in 2017).
Official NCAA March Madness social accounts have produced a 56% lift in engagements vs. last year's Tournament to date through Sunday (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram).
Selection Show's Best Performance Since 2014 Edition
The 2019 NCAA March Madness Selection Show on CBS, produced in partnership between CBS Sports and Turner Sports, earned a 4.0 rating, the highest in five years (4.2 in 2014).
The Selection Show peaked at a 4.3 from 6:30-6:45 p.m. ET. The top 5 markets include Louisville (16.4), Columbus (11.8), Indianapolis (11.3), Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem (10.3), and Kansas City & Cincinnati (9.8).
Duke Semifinal, Championship Do Damage During ACC Tournament
This year's New York Life ACC Men's Basketball Tournament set new records for ESPN, as the Duke-North Carolina semifinal and the Duke-Florida State championship game are now the most-viewed Champ Week games in ESPN history.
The season's third meeting between Duke and North Carolina averaged 4,150,000 viewers, which in addition to setting a new viewership record for ESPN, was the most-viewed Champ Week game across networks this season. The previous record for most-viewed game was the 1998 ACC championship game, which averaged 4,011,000 viewers. The championship game between Florida State-Duke matchup averaged 4,063,000 viewers, the second most-viewed Champ Week game in ESPN history, and second most-watched Champ Week game of the season across all networks.
The second semifinal, which saw Florida State facing Virginia, averaged 1,618,000 viewers, up 76% in comparison to last year's game on ESPN2.
The three games averaged 3,288,000 viewers, up 17% from 2017, when all three matchups were played on ESPN.
Additional highlights
Tennessee's win over Kentucky averaged 3,285,000 viewers, the most-viewed SEC semifinal on ESPN ever, and up 78% from last year's second SEC semifinal game
Women's games during Champ Week averaged 171,000 viewers, up 5% year-over-year
Across ESPN and ESPN2, Champ Week averaged 883,000 viewers, up 10% year over year. It also ranks as the fourth largest audience for Champ Week since 1998. ESPN aired seven of the top ten games during Champ Week.
ESPN Closes Out Men's, Women's College Basketball Regular Season
ESPN's college basketball slate was up significantly year-over-year, with men's basketball up 15%, averaging 1,199,000 viewers per game. Across all networks, men's basketball finished up 6%, and women's basketball was up 5%.
ESPN's franchise programming led the way for the network, with its Sonic Blockbuster (2,803,000 viewers) and Saturday Primetime Presented by H&R Block (2,776,000 viewers) games being up 64% and 42%, respectively. Thursday Showcase contests (women's), which featured marquee matchups throughout the season, averaged 549,000 viewers, up 28%.
On the men's side, ESPN aired the top six games across all networks, including the final regular season matchup between Duke-North Carolina, which averaged 4,162,000 viewers.
The six most-watched games include:
Feb. 20, 2019
North Carolina at Duke
ESPN
4,472,000
Mar 9, 2019
Duke at North Carolina
ESPN
4,162,000
Jan. 19, 2019
Virginia at Duke
ESPN
3,837,000
Feb. 9, 2019
Duke at Virginia
ESPN
3,378,000
Feb. 16, 2019
Tennessee at Kentucky
ESPN
3,057,000
Feb. 23, 2019
Duke at Syracuse
ESPN
3,026,000
Duke generated significant interest on ESPN this season, with Duke games averaging 2,143,000 viewers, up 30% year over year. Even factoring out Duke's increase, college basketball on ESPN is still up 6%.
ESPN networks aired the top 105 men's games on cable, with ESPN networks averaging 410,000 viewers across all games on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU. College GameDay Covered by State Farm on ESPN, and simulcast on ESPNU, averaged 638,000 viewers this season.
For the 17th consecutive year, Louisville is the number one market for men's college basketball. Knoxville ranks second (2.9 rating), followed by Raleigh-Durham (2.8). Round
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
Ratings Roundup: Before Sweet 16 Tips Off, 2019 March Madness Sits in Second as Most-Watched Tourney in 29 Years By Kristian Hernandez, Assistant Editor 
