NCAA Tournament Garners Second Most Watched Television Coverage in 23 Years, Up 16%

National Championship Game Watched by Average of Nearly 23 Million Viewers, Up 30%

NCAA March Madness Live Generates Record 98 Million Live Streams during Tournament, Up 33%

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 is the second most watched in 23 years (1994), averaging 10.827 million viewers, which also is up +16% from last year (9.373 million viewers).

Last night’s National Championship game airing on CBS, where North Carolina defeated Gonzaga, was watched by an average of 22.998 million viewers, up +30% from last year (Villanova-North Carolina). The game peaked with 26.105 million viewers from 11:15-11:30 PM, ET.

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.

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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Media Contacts:

Nate Smeltz, Turner Sports, at 404-827-4786 or nate.smeltz@turner.com
Dan Sabreen, CBS Sports, at 212-975-5936 or dsabreen@cbs.com