2017 NCAA Tournament Delivers Huge Audience Increases Across All Screens
NCAA Tournament Airing on TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV Garners Second Most-Watched Television Coverage in 23 Years, Up 16%
NCAA March Madness Live Generates Record 98 Million Live Streams During Tournament, Up 33%
National Championship Game Watched by Average of Nearly 23 Million Viewers, Up 30%
Turner Sports and CBS Sports’ exclusive coverage of the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship delivered huge audiences across all platforms – television, digital and social. The 2017 NCAA Tournament on TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV is the second most-watched in 23 years (1994), averaging 10.827 million viewers, which is also up +16% from last year (9.373 million viewers).
Additionally, NCAA March Madness Live netted a record-setting 98 million live video streams during the NCAA Tournament, up +33% over last year. The National Championship game garnered 4.4 million live video streams, an all-time record for the title game.
Official March Madness social media handles garnered over 74 million engagements throughout the NCAA Tournament, a 42% increase over last year.
Last night’s National Championship game airing on CBS, with North Carolina defeating Gonzaga, was watched by an average of 22.998 million viewers, up +30% from last year. The game peaked with 26.105 million viewers from 11:15-11:30 p.m. ET.
Linear TV Source: Nielsen Media Research, based on Fast National Live + SD data stream for the 2017 NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament across CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, through Championships compared historical NCAA Tournament through 1991. Digital source: Conviva.
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