NEW YORK (AP) — The new format for televising the NCAA tournament last year proved popular with viewers. A survey commissioned by CBS and Turner found that 91 percent of respondents preferred the new model of broadcasting every game in its entirety across four networks to the old one of switching among games on CBS.
Average viewership for the tournament was up 7 percent from a year earlier, when games were only on CBS. The tourney averaged its highest rating since 2005.
Games were watched by 12 million new in-home viewers, and returning viewers increased their time spent by 24 percent. And a figure advertisers like to see: The median age of the audience dropped from 49 to 46 and viewership increased 21 percent among adults ages 18-34.
