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NCAA Men’s Final Four Averages 12.84 Million Viewers, Up 4% Over Last Year

TBS was measured to have attained the largest portion of overall viewership for the games.

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Donovan Clingan
Courtesy: Nick Wass, Associated Press

The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament showcased two Final Four games on Saturday night and featured Ian Eagle, the new lead play-by-play announcer for the coverage. Eagle was joined by analysts Bill Raftery and Grant Hill, reporter Tracy Wolfson and rules analyst Gene Steratore for the two-game slate from State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. The studio team was live on-site to lead in to the coverage, which featured host Ernie Johnson and analysts Charles Barkley, Clark Kellogg, Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Jay Wright.

The game between the Purdue Boilermakers and NC State Wolfpack averaged 11.45 million viewers and a 5.3 share, which was down 10% in viewership year-over-year. Last year’s comparable matchup between San Diego State and Florida Atlantic University averaged 11.90 million viewers and attained a 6.0 share.

The final game of the night between the defending champion UConn Huskies and Alabama Crimson Tide averaged 14.18 million and a 6.7 share. Year-over-year, the game is up 10% in viewership from last year’s comparable matchup between UConn and Miami, along with a 5% boost in ratings. Both contests were televised on TBS, TNT and truTV and were also available to stream live utilizing NCAA March Madness Live and the Max B/R Sports Add-On.

TBS was measured to have attained the largest portion of overall viewership for the games, drawing approximately 50% of average viewership for Purdue-NC State and just over 46% of viewership for UConn-Alabama. Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch shared that the gap between TBS and TNT was the smallest this year since Warner Bros. Discovery-owned networks commenced airing Final Four games in 2014. Additionally, truTV added over 1 million viewers for each of the contests.

As a whole, Final Four viewership averaged 12.84 million viewers across the three networks, up 4% year-over-year, but it experienced a 2% decline in ratings to a 6.0 share. Viewership figures for Monday night’s National Championship Game between UConn and Purdue have yet to be released.

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Josina Anderson Parting Ways with CBS

“I’m amicably moving on to future ventures. I wish all of the talented insiders, anchors, reporters, producers, executives and support staff the best.”

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Josina Anderson
Courtesy: Miikka Skaffari, Getty Images

CBS Senior NFL insider Josina Anderson announced via her X account she has decided to move on from CBS.

“I want to thank the CBS Sports team for my experience and time there,” she wrote. “I’m amicably moving on to future ventures. I wish all of the talented insiders, anchors, reporters, producers, executives and support staff the best.”

Anderson, 45, started at CBS Sports HQ in September 2021. She had parted ways with ESPN in June 2020 after nine years with the network. At ESPN, she was part of the National ESPN Insider team which at the time consisted of Adam Schefter, Chris Mortensen, John Clayton, Ed Werder, Adam Caplan and Field Yates.

No word yet on what Anderson has planned for the future. BSM will keep you posed as soon as more information becomes available.

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NFL Draft Ratings Fall After Strong First Round

ABC was slightly down, but ESPN2’s number is a 15% drop from last year while NFL Network saw a 20% decline.

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Logo for the 2024 NFL Draft

Despite a strong start on Thursday, the second night of the NFL Draft saw a decline in viewership, reaching its lowest Friday audience since 2012 with an average of only 5.1 million viewers. ABC led the way bringing in 2.69 million viewers, followed by ESPN2 at 1.57 million and NFL Network with 793,000. ESPN Deportes adds in another 14,000 for a total that was 9% less than the year before.

ESPN had previously aired part of Day 2 before shifting over to ESPN2, however this year the second day was solely on ESPN2. ESPN carried Game 3 of the NBA playoff series between the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers. According to Jon Lewis from Sports Media Watch, ABC was slightly down, but ESPN2’s number is a 15% drop from last year while NFL Network saw a 20% decline. Lewis notes the NFL Network number for Friday’s draft coverage was their lowest since 2011.

On Thursday, night one of the NFL Draft had its best viewing audience in three years. According to numbers posted by Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp, ESPN had 5.6 million viewers, while ABC had 4.5 million and the NFL Network and other digital streaming had 1.6 million. Add those numbers to what ESPN Deportes did and it comes out to around 12.1 million. The NFL and Nielsen said that 34.3 million viewers tuned in at some point to watch the first round.

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Report: NBC Could Steal NBA Rights from TNT to the Tune of Around $2.5 Billion Per Year

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A report from the Wall Street Journal says NBC is making an offer around $2.5 billion per year to obtain part of the NBA media rights package. Joel Flint, Amol Sharma and Isabella Simonetti all contributed to the story which says Warner Bros. Discovery is making a “last-ditch effort” for TNT to continue as an NBA partner.

The TNT portion of the current agreement, which expires after next season, is an average of $1.2 billion. ESPN had been paying $1.5 billion and that is expected to increase over $1 billion annually.

Last week, reports surfaced from Puck’s John Ourand that ESPN was nearing completion of their portion of the package and that it would include the NBA Finals staying on ABC. All indications had been there would be more than two partners in the next deal and that it would include a streaming network. Andrew Marchand of The Athletic also reported last week that Amazon Prime Video and the league “have the framework of a deal” and that it would include “significant regular season and postseason games, perhaps even conference finals.”

The WSJ report says NBC’s discussions with the NBA have been about carrying two prime-time games a week. This is important as WBD has matching rights in their current agreement. However, they do not own a broadcast network and therefore could not offer something similar to NBC.

Multiple reports have said any new agreements will be for a period of ten years.

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