The NCAA Tournament continues to benefit from the new four-network set-up.
Friday’s second round coverage of the 2011 NCAA Tournament averaged a combined 5.9 overnight rating across CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV, up 31% from last year’s Friday coverage on CBS (4.5).
The 5.9 is the highest overnight for the first Friday of the NCAA Tournament since 1991. This comes one day after Thursday’s coverage hit a 20-year high in both the overnights and finals.
The first telecast window of the day (12:00-4:45 PM ET) averaged a 4.7 overnight across the four networks, up 62% from last year’s single network telecast on CBS (12:10-2:34 PM: 2.9).
The second afternoon telecast (3:00-7:00 PM) earned a 5.7, up 54% from last year (2:37-5:30 PM: 3.7).
So far, the biggest increases in overnights have come during the afternoon windows. Overnights for Thursday’s afternoon telecasts were up 42% and 46%.
The first primetime window (7:00-9:30 PM) drew a 6.8 overnight, up 24% from last year (7:00-10:06 PM: 5.5), and the highest overnight yet for this year’s NCAA Tournament.
In the nightcap, the final telecast window (9:15 PM-12:45 AM) earned a 6.5, up 12% from last year (10:06 PM-12:43 AM: 5.8).
Overnights for each individual network were not available.
(Turner Sports)
