March Madness 2021 Viewership: By The Numbers

Total viewership for past 10 NCAA March Madness championship games (YoY growth) according to Sports Media Watch:
1) 2010 – DU-BU (CBS) – 23.9M (↑ 36%)
2) 2011 – UC-BU (CBS) – 20.1M (↓ 16%)
3) 2012 – UK-KU (CBS) – 20.9M (↑ 4%)
4) 2013 – UL-UM (CBS) – 23.4M (↑ 12%)
5) 2014 – UC-UK (CBS) – 21.2M (↓ 10%)
6) 2015 – DU-UW (CBS) – 28.3M (↑ 33%)
7) 2016 – VU-UNC (TBS) – 17.8M (↓ 37%)
8) 2017 – UNC-GU (CBS) – 23.0M (↑ 30%)
9) 2018 – VU-UM (TBS) – 16.5M (↓ 28%)
10) 2019 – VTU-TTU (CBS) – 19.6M (↑ 19%)

Big question: How much does CBS/Turner currently pay to air the NCAA March Madness tournament?

Quick answer: ≈$1.1B per year

Recent media rights deals (% change) for NCAA March Madness according to Indianapolis Business Journal:
1) 1994 – 7-years @ $1.7B → $247M/year
2) 2003 – 11-years @ $6.0B → $545M/year (↑ 121%)
3) 2010 – 14-years @ $10.8B → $771M/year (↑ 41%)
4) 2016 – 8-years @ $8.8B → $1.1B/year (↑ 43%)

Podcast: The NCAA has 850 million reasons to love its deal with CBS and Turner Sports

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