NCAA Tourney TV Ratings
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Orangezoo
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I’m curious how much betting has impacted viewership too. Interesting stats for sure. The money game seems it will hang on for a while- I guess it’s those of us who hate the new normal that are behind the 8 ball. I guess the collegiate basketball association is hanging strong
Does it being held on Easter weekend lead to higher ratings?
Doesn't Easter fall on a Sunday every year?
I'm assuming you mean on this particular Sunday of the NCAA Tournament.
OrangeXtreme
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Doesn't Easter fall on a Sunday every year?
I'm assuming you mean on this particular Sunday of the NCAA Tournament.
Kevin Harlan agrees.
orangenauburn
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Legalized gambling gets more people access to betting on games, and thus, higher interest in following games
BomberOrange
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but but but the nba...
djcon57
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So does people watching due to gambling not count? I'm confused how "the sport is dying" yet "more people are watching due to gambling".
I'm not a fan of the portal and the 1 year contracts just as much as anyone. I think the whole "OMG THE SPORT IS DYING" is hyperbolic
The tournament is practically bulletproof (though the SEC and Big Ten may someday test that theory).
The big tv contract never had anything to do with us, the fans who focus year round. It was always about the casuals. And the casuals couldn’t care less about the portal and new teams every year. When you only pay attention for 3 weeks in March/April, every teams is new every year anyways.
Everything we dislike about the new state of college bball is completely transparent to the casual fan.
As long as there are upsets and 15 seeds no one’s heard of winning games, the tournament will be more than OK.
The big tv contract never had anything to do with us, the fans who focus year round. It was always about the casuals. And the casuals couldn’t care less about the portal and new teams every year. When you only pay attention for 3 weeks in March/April, every teams is new every year anyways.
Everything we dislike about the new state of college bball is completely transparent to the casual fan.
As long as there are upsets and 15 seeds no one’s heard of winning games, the tournament will be more than OK.
sutomcat
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Maybe the Elite Eight has good ratings but the Final Four did not. The UNC-Duke game in the Elite Eight had higher ratings than the national championship game.
This continues an alarming trend. Check out this link to ratings for Final Fours over time.
It appears all the recent changes that we thought would turn off fans are indeed doing this.
Pretty shocking how bad the numbers are now. Particularly for the past two championship games.
www.sportsmediawatch.com
This continues an alarming trend. Check out this link to ratings for Final Fours over time.
It appears all the recent changes that we thought would turn off fans are indeed doing this.
Pretty shocking how bad the numbers are now. Particularly for the past two championship games.
NCAA Men's Final Four Ratings Hub
A historical chart of NCAA Final Four ratings, including national championship games dating back to 1975 and national semifinals dating back to 1997.
www.sportsmediawatch.com
Maybe the Elite Eight has good ratings but the Final Four did not. The UNC-Duke game in the Elite Eight had higher ratings than the national championship game.
This continues an alarming trend. Check out this link to ratings for Final Fours over time.
It appears all the recent changes that we thought would turn off fans are indeed doing this.
Pretty shocking how bad the numbers are now. Particularly for the past two championship games.
NCAA Men's Final Four Ratings Hub
A historical chart of NCAA Final Four ratings, including national championship games dating back to 1975 and national semifinals dating back to 1997.
The switch from CBS to TBS for the final four and championship game in recent years can’t help the ratings.
Also, stop having the championship game tip-off at 9:20!! If you’re a casual fan you’re not staying up til 11:30 on a Monday. Even moving up the start 30 mins would be significantly better.
Cusefan95
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The switch to TBS was probably initially driven by, and is now accelerating, lower ratings.
A huge number of my friends who are casual fans took vacation days to hit sports bars the first two days of the tournament, started dropping out as their brackets fell apart, and NONE watched the Final Four since they were all eliminated from pools they were in. The NCAA tournament is a weird gambling event where people essential gamble on the event overall - which means early ratings will stay strong but the Final Four will not. Casuals who have no rooting interest or knowledge of the teams in the Final Four are less likely to bet on - and therefore watch - those games specifically.
If the NCAA ever does anything which makes bracket betting more difficult, I’d expect ratings would crater out and it wouldn’t be viable as a major network event anymore. It’d be hard to overestimate how important that is to the ratings now.
Some what related - I remember my parents letting me take a nap when I got home from school the night of the championship game when I was as young as seven, then staying up to watch with my dad. I remember all the championship games from the 80s, to the point I can still recite significant calls from those games from memory - “Wittenberg, oh it’s a long ways….THEY WON IT!!!! On the dunk…”. I have an eight year old son, with the 9:20 start I can’t justify doing that with him. I’m sure the diehard interest I had as a young adult in college basketball was partly driven by getting to watch championship games with my dad - that not being something my son experiences is likely to push him into the casual category of fan as an adult.
djcon57
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Maybe the Elite Eight has good ratings but the Final Four did not. The UNC-Duke game in the Elite Eight had higher ratings than the national championship game.
This continues an alarming trend. Check out this link to ratings for Final Fours over time.
It appears all the recent changes that we thought would turn off fans are indeed doing this.
Pretty shocking how bad the numbers are now. Particularly for the past two championship games.
NCAA Men's Final Four Ratings Hub
A historical chart of NCAA Final Four ratings, including national championship games dating back to 1975 and national semifinals dating back to 1997.
Comparing these ratings to older ratings are useless due to cord cutting and the move to CBS. That said I don’t think anyone would suggest cbb is as popular as it used to be but it’s nowhere near dead. The shares on the games were still huge for their time slots and for example, UConn/Alabama outdrew us vs UNC from 2016. Would agree the title game numbers were bad though. Could be UConn fatigue
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