Hey B12/ACC! UC brings in the viewers!

http://deadline.com/2015/03/ncaa-tournam...201395725/

March Madness hit primetime last night and the 2015 NCAA Tournament certainly brought a fair share of drama for its first Thursday, especially if you were watching the first game of the night. Cincinnati’s 66-65 victory over Purdue was a strong start to the madness as was top-ranked Kentucky’s 79-56 victory over Hampton — even more so if you had picked the former for your bracket. While certain to change as all live events ratings do, preliminary numbers have the 8-11 PM portion of the tournament scoring a 2.0/7 for the network in the key demo. That’s up a slam-dunk 82% rise over last year’s first Thursday’s early ratings. CBS easily won the night among adults 18-49, but Fox took the viewership top spot with 8.405 million.

As we wait for final numbers, the metered market results can provide an indication of where things will end up – and it could be a very good place. Yesterday’s hoops coverage snagged a record-breaking 6.6/14 average. Broadcast across CBS, TNT, TruTV and TBS, that’s up 10% from last year. It’s also the best first Thursday metered-market result since the tournament expanded to being played over four windows for entire day in 1991. The primetime games garnered a 7.8/13 and a 7.1/13 to rise 1% and 15%, respectively, to 25-year highs – BOOM!

UC-Purdue game in the highest rated window of the day, with the best ratings for that time period in the last 25 years.

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/march-ma...201456888/

CBS and Turner are off to a great ratings start with their joint coverage of college basketball’s March Madness, as Thursday’s games produced the best-ever overnight rating for a first full day of action.

The saw a record five games decided by a single point — at least one apiece in the day’s four television windows — and that may have contributed to the strong numbers.

According to Nielsen estimates, exclusive coverage of the opening full round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV averaged a 6.6 overnight household rating/14 share — up 10% from last year and the highest since the tournament expanded to four telecast windows for the entire day.

The first primetime telecast window (6:45-10:30 p.m. ET), which included the one-point Purdue-Cincinnati contest on CBS and North Carolina escaping with a two-point victory over Harvard on TNT, averaged a 7.8 rating/13 share. This was the highest-rated window of the day, up a tick from last year and the best for the time period in 25 years.

The second primetime window (9:16 p.m.-1:15 a.m. ET), highlighted by the one-point LSU-North Carolina State matchup on TBS and also bolstered by the appearance on CBS of undefeated and top-seeded Kentucky (against Hampton) in their first tournament game.

The day’s first telecast window (noon-4:30 p.m. ET) averaged a 4.6/15, and the second daytime telecast window garnered a 6.7/16, up a big 24% from last year and the best in 25 years.

Good finds, Bruce. Hope someone in ACC or B12ish land is paying attention.