ESPN and the NCAA have agreed to an eight-year media rights deal, extending a contract that’s been in place since 1979, when the sports-focused cable network was founded.

Running through 2032, the contract includes the rights to 40 NCAA championships —  21 women’s and 19 men’s events — and exclusives for all rounds in sports like women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, women’s gymnastics, softball, baseball and FCS football. It also provides international rights to the Division I men’s basketball championship. (U.S. rights to men’s March Madness are covered by a seperate rights deal with CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery.)

The agreement, which takes effect September 1, is valued at $920 million, or $115 million annually. That’s roughly three times the value of ESPN’s current deal with the governing body of college athletics, which pays about $40 million annually.

“ESPN and the NCAA have enjoyed a strong and collaborative relationship for more than four decades, and we are thrilled that it will continue as part of this new, long-term agreement,” said ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro in a statement. “This unprecedented deal also further strengthens The Walt Disney Company’s industry-leading commitment to women’s sports and will help fuel our continued growth, including in the critical streaming space.”

“Having one multiplatform home to showcase our championships provides additional growth potential along with a greater experience for the viewer and our student-athletes,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said. 

As sports media rights grow in value while profits from pay TV shrink, the increased revenue from the new agreement will make it possible for NCAA members to explore new distribution models for women’s sports, according to the NCAA’s statement.

Disney and ESPN, meanwhile, will struggle to rise to the challenge of skyrocketing sports-rights pricing as their distribution model goes through a transitional garden hose from linear to digital. ESPN has lost nearly 4 million subscribers in 2023 alone, according to recently released Nielsen data.

And ESPN is facing still more pricey renewals. The NBA, for instance, is reportedly seeking multiyear national TV rights deals totaling around $75 billion vs. the $24 billion it’s currently netting. The league’s current deal with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery expires after the 2024-25 NBA season.

Disney Advertising Sales said it has sold all of the commercial inventory for the 2022 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Basketball Tournament.

The tournament will be televised by ESPN’s networks from March 16 through April 3.

Disney Ad Sales said the tournament drew 14 sponsors, including Capital One, which returns as the presenting sponsor. The sponsors lineup also includes Adidas, Buick, Champion, Cooper Tires, Ivesco, Nissan, Orgain, Principal Financial Group, Sirius XM, Target, Unilever and Werner Ladder. 

Other advertisers include Apple, AT&T, Credit Karma, General Motors, Golden Corral, Indeed, Jersey Mike’s, Merk, National Automotive Parts Association, Nissan, Quicken Loans, Subway, Taco Bell, T-Mobile, Wendy’s, Whirlpool and Workday.

“ESPN is dedicated to amplifying women in sports, and we are looking forward to this year’s NCAA DI Women’s Basketball Tournament,” said Sean Hanrahan, senior VP , Sports Brand Solutions. “We are excited to see that our sponsors and advertisers have really leaned into our commitment to diversity in athletics and have flocked to these offerings.”

As part of its sponsorship package, Capital One will have numerous feature integrations throughout the tournament. The brand will bring fans the Starting Lineup, a Rewarding Performance feature and the Women’s Tournament Challenge. 

Unilever will be the halftime entitlement sponsor.

Target will sponsor alternate camera angles throughout the Women’s Final Four broadcasts and Werner Ladder will sponsor the net-cutting ceremony during the postgame show. ■

This weekend’s TV sports lineup steps into the squared ring as ESPN Plus distributes its first major pay-per-view boxing event exclusively. Saturday's Terence Crawford-Shawn Porter welterweight championship fight will steam on the digital service only for a suggested retail price of $69.99. ESPN2 will feature live fights from the undercard of the PPV event. 

ESPN Plus will also feature a live UFC Fight Night event featuring a women’s bantamweight main event bout between Ketlen Vieira and Miesha Tate.  

Week 12 of the college football season finds all NCAA top 10-ranked teams in action on Saturday. Top ranked Georgia battles Charleston Southern on ESPN Plus, while second-ranked Alabama hosts No. 21 Arkansas on CBS. ABC televises games featuring third-ranked Oregon against No. 23 Utah and fourth-ranked Ohio State versus seventh-ranked Michigan State.

The remaining schedule includes No. 5 Cincinnati-SMU (ESPN), No. 6 Michigan-Maryland (Big Ten Network), No. 8 Notre Dame-Georgia Tech (NBC), No. 9 Oklahoma State-Texas Tech (Fox) and No 10 Wake Forest-Clemson (ESPN). 

NBCU -- fresh off its new six-year carriage deal with the English Premier League -- will offer live game coverage from the league Saturday on NBCSN, USA Network and NBC, as well as NBCSN on Sunday. ABC and ESPN will air live MLS action Sunday afternoon. 

Weekend 11 of the NFL season begins with regional action on Fox and CBS, and ends with NBC’s Sunday Night Football contest between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Los Angeles Chargers. 

Golf Channel and NBC will offer live weekend coverage of the LGPA Tour Championship, while ESPN will offer Sunday morning coverage of the Formula One Qatar Grand Prix auto race. 

This is a quick snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of April 5-11, revealing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and the top shows and networks by TV ad impressions with insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 17 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

The 2021 Masters Tournament took first place, capturing 2.70% of all minutes watched, while the NCAA men’s basketball tournament was in second place (0.94%). MLB baseball and NBA basketball both made the top 10 for watch-time, with 0.89% and 0.79%, respectively. Ranking newcomers for the week included Gunsmoke, which was at No. 19 (0.45% of all minutes watched) and The Price Is Right (No. 22, 0.42%). American Idol remained at No. 25, with a slight increase in watch-time from the previous week (0.40% vs. 0.39%).

Also Read: Just How Much of a Slam Dunk Has March Madness Been on Live TV?

CBS continued to reign supreme on the network ranking, snagging 9% of watch-time, up from 7.51% the previous week, thanks in part to the 2021 Masters Tournament and the NCAA basketball tournament. The Masters also helped boost ESPN and Golf Channel up in the chart: ESPN took sixth place with 2.58% of all minutes watched, while Golf Channel was No. 25 (1.02%). TBS, which had been benefiting from March Madness games over the last few weeks, dropped to No. 14 from ninth place; MSNBC also slipped in the rankings, down to No. 16 from No. 10 the week before.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

Once again, college basketball was No. 1 for TV ad impressions, 930.7 million, a 74.82% week-over-week decrease as March Madness and the NCAA tournament came to a close. NBA basketball took third place with 729.3 million impressions, a 55% increase from the previous week. The 2021 Masters Tournament and Live From the Masters were neck and neck with 636.1 million impressions vs. 625 million, respectively, and MLB baseball made the top 10 with 622 million impressions, a slight 5.6% week-over-week increase.

CBS maintained its first-place position, although its 7.9 billion TV ad impressions constituted a minor week-over-week decrease. Both ABC and NBC had slight upticks in impressions from the week before, generating 5.6 billion and 4.9 billion, respectively, compared to 5.4 billion and 4.7 billion. Golf Channel jumped into 10th place from No. 17, with its 629.8 million impressions fueled almost entirely by Live From the Masters. MLB Network and Fox Sports 1 were close behind, each generating over 621 million TV ad impressions. Headline News took No. 19 with 369.1 million impressions, driven largely by The Death of George Floyd: Derek Chauvin on Trial.

This is a quick snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of March 29 through April 4, revealing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and the top shows and networks by TV ad impressions with insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 17 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Unsurprisingly, March Madness games captured the most watch-time for the week, accounting for 2.95% of all live, linear minutes. Meanwhile, MLB baseball, which just kicked off its season, took fourth place with 0.88% of minutes watched, and SportsCenter zoomed up the ranking into No. 7 from No. 22 the previous week. Other shows that had notable week-over-week rankings increases included Law & Order (0.48%, up from No. 30 to No. 17) and SpongeBob SquarePants (0.44% of minutes watched, at No. 19 from No. 26 previously).

On the network ranking, CBS was in first place once again, but saw a week-over-week decrease in the percent of minutes watched, down to 7.51% from 8.27%. NBC moved into second place (7.01%), followed by ABC (6.70%), Fox News (4.02%) and Fox (3.74%). Multiple networks moved up the ranking from the previous week including CNN, ESPN, ION, Investigation Discovery and Food Network, while HGTV, TBS, USA, TNT and Univision dropped positions from the week before.

Also Read: Just How Much of a Slam Dunk Has March Madness Been on Live TV?

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

College basketball continued its domination, racking up 3.7 billion TV ad impressions during the week. American Idol broke into the top five with 659.7 million impressions, beating MLB games, which generated 589 million impressions. The Price Is Right and The Young and the Restless were the only other non-sports or news programs to make the top 10. NBA basketball, which was in fifth place for impressions the previous week, dropped to No. 10 (470.5 million impressions); PGA Tour golf also slipped down the ranking, from No. 2 to No. 14 (427.5 million impressions).

The top of the network ranking was stable week-over-week, led by CBS (8.1 billion TV ad impressions), ABC (5.4 billion) and NBC (4.7 billion). March Madness games accounted for over 34% of the impressions on CBS, while morning news shows were top drivers of impressions for both ABC and NBC (GMA and Today, respectively). MLB Network gained steam from the previous week, rising up to No. 12 with 559.8 million impressions. On the flip side, Golf dropped from No. 12 to No. 17, generating 377.8 million impressions during the period measured. Headline News was a ranking newcomer, with 58% of its 362.2 million impressions coming from The Death of George Floyd: Derek Chauvin on Trial.

After the cancellation of last year’s March Madness due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s highly anticipated tournament has been delivering plenty of excitement to college basketball fans across the country — and audiences have been tuning into the games more than anything else on live TV.

Per Inscape, of all the live, linear minutes watched on Vizio smart TVs from March 18-30, 6.94% of the time was spent with the NCAA men’s basketball tournament games, putting March Madness in first place for overall watch-time during that date range. The women’s tournament captured 0.61% of minutes watched, putting it in ninth place. 

Looking at the stages of the tournament, the first-round games on March 19-20 had the highest percentage of minutes watched (14.61%) compared to the other stages, which makes sense given the high number of games that aired those two days.

Also Read: CBS’ Sean McManus on March Madness: I’m Not Worrying About Ratings Being Down

According to Inscape’s analytics, the Midwest has been tuning into March Madness at a higher rate than the coasts. Some of the top local area markets (across the country) so far have included Ft. Smith-Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Arkansas; Little Rock-Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Des Moines-Ames, Iowa; Syracuse, NY; and Champaign-Springfield-Decatur, Illinois.

The championship game is approaching, so it’s worth looking into where the tournament audience may be found after the final buzzer. Per Inscape, shows (excluding news and sports) watched by March Madness viewers include The Price Is Right, Let’s Make a Deal, The Bold and the Beautiful, The Neighborhood, The Wall, Mecum Auto Auctions, The Misery Index, To Tell the Truth, FBI and Wheel of Fortune.

Inscape also examined viewership crossover for the March Madness audience with other sports. A few highlights:

• Viewers of all the sports were most likely to also watch football, with the NFL slightly more popular than college football.
• Of the March Madness viewers, 83% tuned into at least 10 minutes of NFL football since September, 74% have watched some college football and 42% checked out MLB baseball.
• NFL viewers were more likely to watch college football (60%) and MLB baseball (30%) than the NCAA men’s basketball tournament (28%).

On the advertising side of things, men’s March Madness games have racked up over 17.5 billion TV ad impressions as of this writing, according to iSpot.tv — which amounts to 3.4% of all TV ad impressions for the month overall. CBS scored the top impression-count (10.9 billion), followed by TBS (4.3 billion) and TNT (1.4 billion). 

Most-seen brands during the tournament, according to iSpot, include AT&T Wireless (798.3 million TV ad impressions), Samsung Mobile (546.7 million), GEICO (499.3 million), Allstate (448.2 million) and Capital One (431.7 million). 

The top March Madness ad by impressions was Samsung’s “Different,” promoting the Galaxy S21, with 299.3 million impressions. Uber Eats also scored with a March Madness-themed spot featuring Leslie Jones (209.1 million impressions), which gave a nod to last year’s canceled tournament. According to an iSpot Ace Metrix survey, 29% of viewers considered the characters (i.e., Leslie Jones, playing two versions of herself) the single best thing about the ad.

It’s that time of year again: the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament is underway with its early slam dunks and buzz-beaters in the books and the 64 teams have winnowed down to eight. When the action resumes tonight (March 30), millions of users of NCAA March Madness Live mobile app will be glued to the minute-by-minute action. The one thing the app won’t do: Hitting users with a notification every single time there’s a game development. Instead, it gives users a bevy of alert options, allowing for a self-curated customer experience (CX) that every brand should strive for in the 2020s. 

Conversely in the mobile space right now, we have the intriguing case of Clubhouse, an invite-only app for live audio group discussions that has rapidly grown to more than 10 million users after only having two million as recently as January. The startup is not only buzzy for its hockey-stick growth and fascinating audio platform — which has attracted celebrities as well as everyday people — it’s also become a media topic due to over-pinging its users with notifications. 

Many Clubhouse users are clearly not enjoying the alerts, and — as a user for the last couple of months — I can attest to getting overwhelmed myself with irrelevant interruptions. I suggest that Clubhouse learn from the team managing the March Madness Live app (Turner Sports in partnership with the NCAA and CBS Sports) about how to delight users with app notifications the right way.  

The right fundamentals

Turner Sports doesn’t want to put a full-court press on basketball fans with constant -- and potentially irrelevant -- alerts. The March Madness Live preference center gives users notification options for game updates, bracket alerts specific to users’ picks, top news, and the schools involved in the tourney. The last feature is a nice showcase for relevancy and granularity: Turner Sports actually lets folks select alerts for each of the 68 teams with a single tap of the phone. What's more, the March Madness Live app utilizes an "Excitement" algorithm to determine when games are getting nail-biting close or poised for upsets, and also combines it with fans' bracket selections, to alert them thrilling final minutes of a game and which outcomes may impact their bracket ranking. (More on the Airship role in the alerts here.) That is Final Four-level engagement, right there! 

These kinds of specific choices are why in 2019—the last time the NCAA Tournament was played due to the pandemic—a single Excitement notification drove considerable minutes of mobile live stream viewing. In ‘19, across mobile and desktop, the NCAA had more than 100 million live streams, a 31% jump from the previous year. It’s no wonder major brands like AT&T 5G, Capital One, Coca-Cola, Buick and Nissan are sponsoring March Madness Live this year on the iOS and Android versions of the app.

In fact, CBS Sports and Turner Sports have notched record-breaking ad sales for this year’s March Madness. I’m sure Clubhouse, which likely wants to become a full-fledged social network, would want to sell advertising to such formidable brands. After all, the burgeoning startup hired Netflix marketer and ad industry veteran Maya Watson earlier this month as head of global marketing. 

How Clubhouse can improve its alerts game

Clubhouse’s notifications center does allow users to choose general topics for notifications like Venture Capital, U.S. Politics and Comedy. Also, users can select whether they want to get notifications on the following basis: Very Frequent, Frequent, Normal, Infrequent or Very Infrequent. However, the app does not let users know what those frequency choices mean for the number of alerts they’ll receive. 

Clubhouse marketers and developers should go a few steps further by setting up a preference center with more specific options for topics and personalities. For instance, if automotive fans only care to listen in when Tesla is the main topic, they should be able to set their preferences so they only get a notification for those sessions. And if users just want notifications when certain people such as music star Drake, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, comedian Tiffany Haddish or futurist-author Malcolm Gladwell show up to an audio event, then that’s all they should get. The Wall Street Journal already does this with email and app notifications. WSJ online viewers can sign up for alerts for not only individual scribes like sportswriter Jason Gay and articles about popular topics like wine or singular companies like Goldman Sachs, but also subjects as narrow as when it offers a new puzzle for subscribers to solve. 

Indeed, some consumers are WSJ devotees just for the puzzle alerts. Talk about a self-curated experience at a championship level!

Winning the future

The good news is, it’s still the first round for Clubhouse. It has already changed up its growth playbook after feedback, and its exclusivity and excitement may forgive some notification transgressions for now. 

However, every single message contains an embedded, two-tap process to enable quiet delivery or turn off notifications altogether — either of which would be disastrous to Clubhouse’s entire model of connecting people for live discussions. It will be particularly interesting to watch how the impressive hiring of Maya Watson impacts the app’s notifications approach because her previous employer, Netflix, is justifiably renowned for delivering personalized experiences. That’s not to say Clubhouse should copy Netflix. The white-hot startup needs to find out what options are right for its audience through experimentation and A/B and multivariate testing. 

Clubhouse should also take a page out of the Turner Sports mobile playbook when it comes to granular preference centers and data-driven innovations to better serve their audience. As UCLA coaching legend John Wooden, who won 10 championships, once said, “Always learn from others and never cease trying to be the best you can be.”

Bernardo de Albergaria is Chief Commercial Officer at Airship, a mobile-first marketing automation platform that helps brands better serve customers throughout their cross-channel journeys.  
 

This is a quick snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Mar. 22-28, revealing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and the top shows and networks by TV ad impressions with insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 17 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

For the second week in a row, March Madness led for watch-time, capturing 4.78% of all minutes watched during the week. PGA Tour golf swung into second place (1.16%), while the NCAA women’s basketball tournament took No. 6 (0.74%) and NBA games were right behind with 0.71% of watch-time. American Idol, which was previously not in the top 50 shows watched, broke into the ranking at No. 16 (0.46%).

CBS maintained its hold on first place for the network ranking (8.27% of minutes watched), with an assist from March Madness games, CBS This Morning and The Price Is Right. Marathons of Ridiculousness helped move MTV into the ranking, up to No. 24 from No. 27 the previous week, while Lifetime benefited from reruns of Rizzoli & Isles, taking No. 23 with 1.10% of the week’s watch-time.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

College basketball was the primary driver of impressions during the week, but its 7 billion was a 24.37% decrease from the previous week. PGA Tour golf and NBA basketball also made the top five shows by impressions, with 906.1 million and 627 million, respectively, while women’s college basketball games came in at No. 7 (568.6 million). The top non-news or sports show by impressions was American Idol (623.9 million); others included The Price Is Right (542.3 million), The Young and the Restless (510.3 million), General Hospital (386.1 million), The Voice (366.8 million), Let’s Make a Deal (328.5 million) and Days of our Lives (326.9 million).

There was no shuffling among the first eight positions of the network ranking week-over-week: CBS led the pack with 9.9 billion impressions, followed by ABC (6 billion) and NBC (4.6 billion). Not only did March Madness deliver half of the total impressions on CBS (4.5 billion), games also accounted for 94.5% of all of the impressions from new programming on TBS, and 41.3% of TNT’s impressions. History Channel had a 54.17% week-over-week increase in impressions, moving from No. 28 the previous week up to No. 17, thanks in part to the Barrett-Jackson Live Auction. Hallmark also saw an increase in impressions, up 14.8% to 310.4 million, fueled by the network’s new original movie Don't Go Breaking My Heart (183.9 million impressions) and a new episode of When Calls the Heart (110 million impressions).

This is a quick snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Mar. 15-21, revealing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and the top shows and networks by TV ad impressions with insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 17 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

March Madness captured the most watch-time during the week by far, accounting for 6.65% of all minutes, with 3.17% coming from games broadcast on CBS. Other sports-related programming that rose up the ranking included NBA basketball, PGA Tour golf and SportsCenter. Police procedurals Chicago P.D., Blue Bloods and NCIS moved up the chart, while shows that slipped week-over-week included Friends, Two and a Half Men, Home Town and The Voice. 

Also Read: NCAA March Madness Tourney Generating Record Ad Sales, Execs Say

The 2021 NCAA Basketball Tournament helped propel CBS into first place, with the network capturing 8.25% of all minutes watched during the week. March Madness also fueled a few other networks’ move up the ranking, including TBS (2.75% of watch-time), TNT (2.10%) and truTV (1.07%). Bravo got a slight bump up, taking No. 22 with 1.13% of minutes watched, thanks in part to reruns of Below Deck Mediterranean.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

Thanks to March Madness, college basketball games generated an astounding 9.3 billion TV ad impressions — nearly as many as CBS had in total for new episodes (10.1 billion). It was the only programming to receive over a billion impressions for the week; Good Morning America took second place with 883.3 million, a 15.92% increase from the previous week. The Bachelor saw an 81.89% week-over-week increase in impressions, up to 567.4 million, while The Voice’s 430.6 million impressions constituted a 26.76% decrease from the previous week.

CBS had nearly twice as many TV ad impressions (10.1 billion) as the second-place network, ABC (5.2 billion), and half of those impressions came from college basketball. MSNBC saw a 59.73% increase in impressions week-over-week, up to 3.1 billion and edging out CNN (2.5 billion impressions). After a week off the ranking, TBS came back strong with 2.3 billion impressions, primarily fueled by March Madness games. TNT and truTV also benefited from the tournament, with 1.5 billion and 840 million impressions, respectively.

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is inspiring March Madness among sponsors and generating record advertising revenue for CBS and Turner Sports.

“We’re virtually sold out,” said John Bogusz, executive VP, sports sales and marketing, CBS Network Sales, speaking on a call with reporters Wednesday. 

Bogusz said that for the big ticket items, all of the commercials in one of the Final Four games are already spoken for, and there are only a couple of units left in the other Final Four games and the championship game.

Also Read: CBS’s Sean McManus on March Madness: I’m Not Worrying About Ratings Being

A handful of spots are being reserved in case the trend to lower ratings seen in college basketball so far this year, as well as in the Super Bowl and the NBA All Star game also impacts the tournament, he said.

But ad sales at higher prices than last year have produced record revenue, said Jon Diament, executive VP, chief revenue officer, Turner Sports.

During the 2019 tournament, CBS and Turner Sports generated an estimated $655.1 million in ad revenue, according to Standard Media Index.

Diament said several new corporate sponsors signed up, helping to boost the revenue total. The new partner level sponsors are Aflac, Invesco and Great Clips.

Invesco and Great Clips actually signed up for last year’s tournament, which was one of the first events canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Aflac is brand new this year.

The Champion-level sponsors for the tournament are AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola. The partner level sponsors are Aflac, Buffalo Wild Wings, Buick, GEICO, Great Clips, Invesco, Lowe’s, Marriott, Nabisco, Nissan, Pizza Hut, Reese’s, Uber Eats, Unilever, and Wendy’s.

Those are generally multi-year deals, which means the event is nearly half sold out when CBS and Turner sales people hit the street each year. Those sponsorships include integrated media, marketing rights, activations and hospitality.

The big categories driving increased spending this year are insurance, auto, telecom, financial services and restaurants.

After the pandemic, both quick service and casual dining restaurants are advertising again, Diament said.

A couple of movie studios are also advertising plus streaming services, including Paramount Plus from CBS parent company ViacomCBS, which was a big Super Bowl advertiser, and HBO Max from Turner parent AT&T.

While ratings have been challenged for linear networks, spending on sports has continued to be good, said Bogusz. Diament added that Turner has been seeing record-setting revenue for its NBA season.

During the games, viewers will see new, custom contextual ads, many featuring the networks’ sports talent; in-game branding during marquee moments and commentary, made-for-TV moments and amplified social moments.

In all, 100 different advertisers will be involved in the tournament and about 90% of the advertisers buying linear ads will also be on digital platforms including NCAA March Madness Live.  

“We’re starting to see more of a trend of folks coming in and buying their inventory earlier because they’re concerned about  getting blocked out of the prime positions,” Diament added.

One thing that will make this year’s tournament different is smaller out-of-home viewership with fewer people watching in bars and in offices. For the past few years, out-of-home viewing has been included in the audience numbers on which ad sales are based.

“We expect the Nielsen number to reflect strong viewership at home,” Diament said. “There won’t be a need for a boss button.”

This is a quick snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of March 1-7, revealing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and the top shows and networks by TV ad impressions with insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 17 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Once again, college basketball takes first place, with 1.65% of all watch-time during the week, followed by PGA Tour Golf (1.0%). NBA basketball, which was second place the previous week, dropped to No. 9 with 0.58% of minutes watched, while the 2021 NBA All-Star Game took No. 15 with 0.52%. The season 20 premiere of The Voice on NBC made the top 10 (0.57% of watch-time), while Oprah’s interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on CBS came in at No. 12 (0.55% of all minutes watched during the week). It’s also worth noting that for March 7, the Oprah interview was the No. 1 most-watched show that day (3.44% of all minutes watched).

Also Read: ‘Oprah With Meghan and Harry’ Was the Top Live, Linear Program on Sunday

On the network side of things, CBS took first place with 7.07% of minutes watched, thanks in part to college basketball games and Oprah’s interview with Meghan and Harry. With an assist from NBA basketball, TNT rose up to 10th place from No. 13 the previous week, capturing 1.80% of watch-time. TBS also saw a week-over-week ranking increase, taking No. 11 with 1.71%, thanks in part to reruns of Friends and The Big Bang Theory, as well as the NBA All-Star Game.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

College basketball games generated nearly 1.6 billion TV ad impressions during the week, while NBA games had 1.2 billion impressions. PGA Tour Golf came in third with 704.8 million impressions. The premiere of The Voice came in at No. 8 (533 million TV ad impressions), while Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special took ninth (515.8 million impressions). The Bachelor squeaked into the top 25, with 284 million TV ad impressions, a 19.62% week-over-week decrease.

The top of the rankings was steady week-over-week, with CBS on top. Its 5.8 billion TV ad impressions constituted a 12.30% increase from the previous week, fueled in part by The Price Is Right and Oprah’s interview with Meghan and Harry. TNT saw a notable 101.27% increase in impressions week-over-week, with NBA basketball games accounting for over 63% of impressions. Discovery Channel was another network with a week-over-week increase, up 32.44% to 625.1 million, thanks in part to new episodes of Naked and Afraid: Gimme Shelter and Gold Rush.

This is a quick snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of  Feb. 22-28, revealing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and the top shows and networks by TV ad impressions with insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 17 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Sports continue to capture the most watch-time, led by college basketball (1.56% of all minutes watched), followed by NBA games (1.16%) and PGA Tour Golf (0.92%). SportsCenter also saw increased viewership (0.51%), up to No. 13 from No. 23 the previous week. Thanks in part to marathons, Home Town and The First 48 jumped up the ranking, to No. 10 and No. 23, respectively. Aside from college basketball, only three other programs maintained their ranking week-over-week: Good Morning America, Ridiculousness and ABC World News Tonight With David Muir.

Thanks in part to PGA Tour Golf and the 78th Annual Golden Globe Awards, NBC rose into first place with 6.84% of minutes watched during the week. Hallmark had the biggest ranking jump compared to the previous week, up to No. 10 from No. 16, with help from marathons of The Golden Girls. Chart newcomers compared to the previous week included MTV and A&E, taking No. 24 and No. 25, respectively, fueled by marathons of their own (Ridiculousness and The First 48).

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

College basketball squeezed past the NBA to take first place for TV ad impressions, with games generating over 1.44 billion impressions vs. 1.41 billion. PGA Tour Golf took third place with 778 million impressions, a 50.12% week-over-week increase. The 78th Annual Golden Globe Awards generated 346.8 million TV ad impressions while American Idol, which aired at the same time, generated 282 million impressions.

CBS maintained its first-place position, receiving slightly more TV ad impressions (5.2 billion) compared to the previous week (4.9 billion), driven in part by new episodes of The Price Is Right, The Young and the Restless and CBS This Morning — although college basketball also contributed 351 million TV ad impressions to the network’s total. Golf rose up the ranking to No. 12 with 511.1 million TV ad impressions, 67% of which came from PGA Tour broadcasts. HGTV also saw a week-over-week increase, up to 446.2 million impressions from the previous week’s 379.8 million, with Home Town delivering the top impression-count for the network (89.1 million).

The NCAA's March Madness men’s college basketball tournament will take place entirely in Indiana this Spring, a year after the 2020 tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA announced Monday. 

The unprecedented arrangement will allow for all 67 tournament games to take place in and around Indianapolis beginning in March, with the tournament's Final Four scheduled for April 3 and April 5, according to the organization. 

Tournament games will take place on two courts inside Indiana's Lucas Oil Stadium -- with only one game at a time being played --  as well as Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indiana Farmers Coliseum, Mackey Arena in West Lafayette and Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington, according to the organization. It's unclear if fans will be allowed in the venues. 

CBS Sports and Turner Sports will continue to distribute all 67 games of the tournament across TBS, CBS, TNT, truTV and their respective digital platforms, according to the NCAA.

The announcement comes nearly a year after the NCAA canceled the popular tournament last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Also Read: NCAA Cancels March Madness

“The 2021 version of March Madness will be one to remember, if for no other reason than the uniqueness of the event,” NCAA senior VP of basketball Dan Gavitt in a statement. “With the direction of the Men’s Basketball Committee, we are making the most of the circumstances the global pandemic has presented."

Turner will launch the live sports streaming service Bleacher Report Live (B/R Live) on April 7.

Turner described the service as “the central hub for both the discovery and consumption of live sports content,” allowing fans to “find and watch their favorite sports content anywhere, anytime and on the screen of their choice.”

Starting this summer, B/R Live will implement flexible pricing options, with direct access to live games for purchase on an a la carte or subscription basis.

The platform helps users find and watch live sports with the ability to scroll through a feed of real-time sports events, and offers personalization features that aggregate live sports content.

Sports on the platform include soccer’s UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, NBA League Pass games, 65 NCAA Championships and the PGA Championship, as well as the National Lacrosse League, The Spring League, Red Bull Global Rallycross and World Arm Wrestling League.

“As viewing habits continue to evolve, Turner is well positioned to provide fans with direct access to premium live sports content that is highly coveted by audiences of scale, including a high concentration of millennials,” said David Levy, president of Turner. “When we first acquired Bleacher Report in 2012, we knew the definition of a network was changing and we anticipated a time when B/R would become a virtual network. Today is a significant step in that direction and we will fully leverage the reach of B/R and its deep connection with passionate sports fans to provide compelling experiences for them across this new, exciting platform.”

NBA League Pass will allow fans to purchase and watch live NBA games in progress at a reduced price.

“For us, it’s really a question of bringing fans what they want,” said Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, offering the example of a fan tuning in as a star player goes for a historic point total.

Lenny Daniels, president of Turner Sports, called B/R Live "a game-changing product that will serve as the ultimate destination for the sports fan."

On Thursday (March 15) CBS and Turner Sports tip-off their eighth year of March Madness coverage, airing and streaming live every game of the popular men’s college basketball tournament.

On TV, fans can watch every play of every game through a mix of channels including broadcast network CBS, as well as cable networks TNT, TBS and truTV. If you don’t want to scroll up and down the channel lineup looking for those channels, the NCAA March Madness Live streaming app will provide easy switching from game to game on a single screen and can be accessed on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Roku the Xbox One gaming console and other platforms.

RELATED: Turner's David Levy and CBS Sports' Sean McManus discuss coverage of the 2018 'March Madness' Tournament (Video)

If you’re at work, in the car or at the mall, the games are also available on your mobile phone via NCAA March Madness Live. For hardcore fans, Turner/CBS will offer Fast Break, a live streaming “whip-around” service that will switch between every tournament game during the first two days as well as provide real-time analysis and social media reaction.

With so many platforms available to watch the games, it’s hard to imagine a time when only one or two games were available to watch at a time during the first two rounds of the tournament. TNT and CBS have helped revolutionize the way viewers experience the tournament, according to sports consultant Lee Berke.

“The demand has always been there to see more and more of these games on a live, real-time basis on multiple platforms, but the technology hadn’t caught to the demand,” Berke said. “Finally the technology and the platforms have caught up to what the fans want to see.”

With this year’s version of March Madness generating $1.28 billion in advertising revenue – up 3.3% from last year according to Kantar Media – sponsors continue to make a fast break toward the tournament and are not overly concerned about potential audience splintering due to the various platform offerings.

“From a media company standpoint and from a sponsor standpoint nobody loses out,” Berke said. “All  the eyeballs and revenue are captured, and it leads to a great business model that works well for the rights holders, the sponsors and the sports fans.”

All that’s left is to sit back and watch the madness unfold.  

With a new president generating a lot of attention, news viewing rose 6% in 2017, according to an analysis of Nielsen figures by analyst Brian Wieser of Pivotal Research Group.

Sports viewing declined 12% in a year without the Olympics. Removing the Olympics from the equation, sports viewing was still down 6%, Wieser said in a report Wednesday (Jan. 3).

News and sports are key categories for TV, accounting for about 23% of all viewing, based on live-plus-same-day metrics. Those two categories are mostly viewed live, as opposed to entertainment programming, which is increasingly viewed on a delayed basis or on demand.

“News is important for media owners because of the absolute scale of the genre, its potential for profitability, the political influence that follows from these divisions and because of the significant growth they have recorded in recent periods,” Wieser said.

Related: New Year, New Trump Attacks on Media

In the news segment, Weiser said NBCU’s MSNBC was the biggest beneficiary of the surge in news viewing, gaining 49%. Fox News Channel viewership grew 8%, and CNN rose 4%. Overall, viewing of the three big cable news networks was up 15%.

The big three broadcast networks’ news programming was down 7%.

Among individual shows, ABC’s Good Morning America was most popular, but was down 12% year over year. The second most popular news show was Fox News’s Fox & Friends, which was up 25%.

"In contrast to news, sports has struggled generally, although the genre still remains an important source of viewing of traditional TV," Wieser said. "In aggregate, it represents an outsized source of costs, revenues and strategic leverage between networks and distributors."

Disney networks, including ESPN, accounted for 33% of all sports viewing; nonetheless, sports viewing on Disney-owned nets was down 8% despite a 1% increase in programming hours.

Related: Return to New Year’s Day Boosts ESPN's Bowl Games

NBCU properties accounted for 16% of sports viewing and were down 39% because of the absence of Olympic programming. Viewing was down 11% on average in non-Olympic weeks on NBCU networks.

Fox-owned networks had a 21% share of sports viewing, and average viewership was up 13%, thanks in part to the Super Bowl.

Football accounted for 42% of sports viewing, with NFL programming generating 27% of total consumption. NFL viewing was down 8% despite 9% more programming hours. College football programming accounted for 12% of consumption and was flat year to year.

With the college football playoff semifinals returning to New Year’s Day, ratings on ESPN jumped from last year when the games aired on New Year’s Eve.

ESPN said 26.8 million people watched the 2018 Rose Bowl Monday as Georgia beat Oklahoma 54-48 in overtime; with an audience up 39% from last year's Rose Bowl, the game was the fifth most watched cable telecast of all time.

Related: Georgia-Oklahoma Rose Bowl Telecast Scores on Social Media

The Georgia-Oklahoma game trailed only the 2015 Championship game between Oregon and Ohio State, the 2011 Championship game between Oregon and Auburn, and the two semi-final games in 2015, the last time the games were played on New Year’s Day.

Monday’s other semifinal, the 2018 Sugar Bowl with Alabama beating Clemson 24-6, drew 21.1 million viewers, up 10% from the comparable game last year.

Related: Four Trends in Play for Cable Sports

ESPN aired a total of six bowl games on Monday and said they averaged nearly 15 million viewers. The network anticipates the games will comprise the most-watched "New Year’s Eve Six" ever once the streaming audience is fully reported.

The currently available metrics show viewership up 9% from last year and up 24% from the 2015 season.

4K TV is not yet a mass-market phenomenon, but Fox Sports said it’s preparing for an inevitable “evolution” once the pixel-packed format is widely adopted by distribution partners and consumers.

Fox Sports, which has already produced some NASCAR races and college basketball games in 4K, is taking another step forward this fall as it moves ahead with a plan to produce one college football game per week in 4K — for a total of 13 games.

The first took place on Sept. 2, when the Maryland Terrapins visited the Texas Longhorns.

Fox Sports will distribute its full slate of college-football games in 4K with DirecTV, which has been using its satellite-TV platform to spearhead an ambitious strategy around the emerging video format.

“They’ve got the distribution, and they have the technology to move 4K from the remote [location] to the house,” Michael Davies, Fox Sports senior vice president of field and technical operations, said.

Fox is also discussing 4K distribution of those games with Layer3 TV, the Denver-based IPTV cable operator that supports 4K on all its boxes that has launched service in markets such as Washington, D.C., Los Angeles; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Dallas/Fort Worth and Longmont, Colo., with New York on deck.

4K’s College Try
The college football slate represents Fox Sports’s most significant 4K project to date.

“This gives us a great opportunity to flex our muscles a bit with what 4K can be,” Davies said. “College football at this level is something that can be done in 4K and can be done successfully, so we’re excited about giving it a try.”

Davies said the 4K college football productions will offer some efficiencies because Fox Sports can produce the event in 4K and downconvert it for a wider audience watching the game in HD or standard definition.

“You don’t need to make too many sacrifices in terms of the production level [and] the end cost,” he said.

Additionally, these productions will take advantage of other features usually found in a standard football broadcast, such as on-screen graphics and yellow lines that mark first-down locations, but designed for 4K-level resolutions.

“The graphics look beautiful in 4K,” Davies said. “I think that puts the sheen on the whole production.”

Unlike its earlier NASCAR productions, Fox Sports won’t need to roll in a separate truck for the 4K college football productions, and it will need only one production crew to pull them off. (That wasn’t the case for 3DTV productions, which required separate crews and a different set of cameras.)

For this year’s games, Fox Sports has earmarked a 4K truck from Denver-based Mobile TV Group that also did some work with NBC to produce a handful of Notre Dame football games in the format.

“It’s got some reps under its belt,” Davies said, noting that the productions will use the guts of the 4K truck while preserving the overall workflow. “The goal is to put all of this in one truck.”

Though Fox Sports will learn some new 4K lessons this fall, it’s also drawing on some that it got from its earlier 4K productions.

“Organization is key,” Davies said. “You have to organize yourself very well to make sure you don’t run out of inputs.”

Plus, Fox Sports plans to be selective on what can be upconverted and inserted seamlessly into the 4K feed. Replays, for example, are still done in HD and upconverted for the 4K telecast.

Looking ahead, Davies said Fox Sports is “itching to get our hands on some HDR production,” referring to High Dynamic Range, an emerging technology that will make the pixels brighter and more colorful and complement the pixel density afforded by 4K.

“When we look at the evolution of the format … the Holy Grail is 4K HDR,” Davies said. “That’s what’s we’re working towards. We think there’s a lot of benefits that come from the combination of resolution and High Dynamic Range, but we’re not quite there yet.”

Also not there yet is widespread consumer adoption of 4K TVs. While the pace of 4K/UHD TV adoption is ahead of the transition from standard-definition to HD, according to the Consumer Technology Association, there’s still a lot of ground to capture.

Shipment of 4K TVs in North America are expected to more than double, from 11.7 million in 2016 to 25.9 million in 2020, according to IHS Markit.

Said Davies: “4K is an evolution. For us, this is an opportunity to work week over week in this space, and it also gives us a laboratory to experiment with different things in 4K.”

Over-the-top video still doesn’t scale to the lofty levels of traditional broadcast television, but online video’s ability to support major live sporting events continues to evolve and improve.

The latest example stems from the recently concluded NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. TV coverage of the tourney was complemented by “NCAA March Madness Live,” a live-streaming product developed by Turner Sports in partnership with CBS and the NCAA. That product, underpinned by iStreamPlanet (the online video infrastructure company Turner acquired in 2015), streamed games to more than a dozen platforms, including smartphones, tablets and Web browsers, as well as TV-connected Roku players, and Apple TV and Fire TV devices.

RECORD AUDIENCES
NCAA March Madness Live netted a record 98 million live video streams during the tournament, while the national championship game drew a record 4.4 million live streams, and a 29% increase from last year.

Traditional TV still dominates the viewing landscape, as the tournament averaged 10.82 million viewers, up 16% from last year’s average of 9.37 million. The championship game, won by North Carolina, netted an average of 22.99 million viewers, up about 30%.

While those OTT numbers still have a ways to go before reaching TV-like viewing levels, the partners involved in the streaming project tied together disparate systems to pull it off.

A big difference this year was the shift from the legacy world of SDI/baseband video distribution to IP.

That move “gave us a lot more flexibility on how we structured the workflow” while also optimizing ad insertion and ensuring the associated metadata was supported, Mio Babic, founder of iStreamPlanet, said.

When pulled together, the shift “connected the dots as video flowed from the actual arenas down to the consumer devices,” Babic explained.

Using an IP-based workflow also gave iStreamPlanet and its partners clearer visibility into the video streams themselves and a way to better monitor and understand their performance, so adjustments could be made as needed. That helped all parties involved to deal with traffic spikes in a specific region, for example, Babic said.

The overall aim was to deliver an HD-quality signal regardless of device, whether a smartphone or a 60-inch TV. Multiple streaming profiles were created for each type of supported device, Babic said.

iStreamPlanet and its partners delivered tournament video via unicast streaming delivery. Multicast streaming — the delivery of a stream that is accessible by multiple users — might eventually provide a way to reduce bandwidth requirements.

(STILL) GOING MOBILE
As for surprises during the tournament, Babic said viewing on mobile devices continues to strengthen. “The growth [for mobile] is not stopping … it’s accelerating,” he said. “These devices are now part of our lives. It’s almost like an extension of our hands.”

OTT will continue facing challenges as more viewers veer away from traditional TV and more devices enter the mix. “You don’t build it once,” Babic said. “You have to keep up with the changes … changes in features, changes in requirements, changes in security, changes in monetization.”

Looking ahead, Babic said he expects machine learning to take on a greater role not just in helping to personalize content, but to tap into the workflow in a way that can quickly spot anomalies and trends and make adjustments before they manifest into larger issues.

Telsey Advisory Group media analyst Tom Eagan increased his price target on Time Warner Inc., to $91 per share on Friday, based on what he believes is a strong slate of new programming targeting younger viewers, which should serve as a complement to its existing sports programming.

Eagan’s price increase represents a hefty premium (23%) to the shares, which closed at $74.07 each on May 26, and comes at a time when pay TV networks are under pressure to find new ways to attract younger viewers. It also comes on the heels of reports that Time Warner held informal talks late last year with Apple about a possible takeover.

Those talks never left the preliminary stage – according to the Financial Times, the meeting was initially between Apple’s SVP Internet software and services Eddy Cue and Time Warner EVP international and corporate strategy Olaf Olafsson to discuss a possible programming licensing deal for Apple’s since delayed TV service. The talks never involved Apple CEO Tim Cook or Time Warner chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes.

Back in 2014, 21st Century Fox made an $80 billion unsolicited offer for Time Warner, which was rejected by the company’s board of directors. Fox dropped its pursuit in August of that year.  Bewkes pledged to turn the company around, which he did by restructuring the Turner Networks division and launching HBO Now, the premium network’s standalone over-the-top offering.  

Time Warner, like other pay TV programmers, have been under pressure as OTT and declining pay TV rolls have chipped away at affiliate fees. But Eagan, in his report, said that Turner’s latest upfronts were encouraging, offering a slate of shows specifically targeted at young makes and females. While other networks have done the same – targeting a young demographic has been TV’s mission practically since the first broadcast signals were transmitted -- the new strategy (which Eagan calls "Frat Boys and Bad Girls") marks the continued departure from Turner's past practice of loading up the schedule with syndicated re-runs.

At TNT (whose tag line is TNT: Drama. Boom), new shows that feature strong female leads and are targeted to young women like Good Behavior and Animal Kingdom, join freshman shows like TBS comedy Wrecked – a Lost parody that takes comic aim at the survivors of a plane crash – that are focused on the young male demographic.

“Our early take is that the original programming appears compelling enough to draw the younger demographic that Turner Ad Sales is seeking,” Eagan wrote.

Add to that Turner’s strong sports offerings with the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and its recently extended deal for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and the networks could attract a wide swath of that audience.

“Ratings will, of course, be a major swing factor, especially in 2H16 after the new shows are launched,” Eagan wrote. “But, longer term, the strategy makes sense. Time Warner has realized that a major network's ratings can no longer be fueled by syndicated programming. The new world is original.”

Turner Sports has promoted Will Funk to executive VP, sales  and property partnerships,  a new post.

Funk, who had been senior VP of sponsorship integration and business development, will continue to report to Jon Diament, executive VP of Turner Sports ad sales.

In his new position Funk will develop and manage long-term marketing partnerships built around Turner Sports properties such as NBA basketball, NCAA March Madness and the new eSports League.

“Will has played a critical role in expanding our NCAA corporate marketing program, while also developing signature marketing partnerships around high profile NBA content,” Diament said.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

The big dance that is the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament draws big ad bucks.

In fact, college hoops’ March Madness is second only to NFL football in terms of generating ad spending, according to a report by Kantar Media.

Last year the NFL playoffs generated $1.25 billion in revenue, followed by the NCAA tournament at $1.19 billion, the NBA playoffs at $944 million, Major League Baseball at $415 million, and NCAA Football Bowl games at $314 million, the report said.

Turner and CBS, which will televise the tournament, are posed to exceed last year’s total, which was up 4.8% from 2014, Kantar said.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

RELATED:Recruiting Tips for TV's Digital Age

As the pay TV industry continues its digital transformation, the makeup of the workforce required to keep it going is taxing recruiting efforts, throwing programmers and distributors into a talent competition that rivals anything on reality TV.

In this competition, job-seekers are the judges and employers are the contestants vying to be given a chance. Social-media specialists, cross-platform content producers, app developers, network engineers, IT security pros, data jockeys and other in-demand candidates are in command of the buzzers in the big black chairs, and pay TV recruiters hit the stage with their acts:

Wanted:Content developer and TV fan passionate about our brand who can create short-form video, post it online, tweet it, put it on Facebook and then parse who’s engaging with it and why.

Wanted:Cloud architect and TV fan passionate about our brand who can create infrastructure required to support future TV Everywhere strategy and interface with Big Data system to parse who’s engaging with TVE apps and why.

TV businesses have an overwhelming need for an elusive candidate who has blended skills across multiple platforms in an environment where the traditional lines between users and IT, production and distribution, even digital and analog platforms, have blurred. Pay TV companies are no longer simply recruiting against each other, but against an insatiable demand for digital and tech pros across all industries, particularly the digital companies they’re increasingly competing against for eyeballs.

Networks and multichannel distributors are trying to fill the same digital and technology roles, requiring the same scarce skills, as a group of companies many simply refer to as “the Googles” — Google, Apple, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon are the most commonly cited — the über-aspirational digital companies for millennials coming into the marketplace.

While pay TV’s digital transformation has been swift and impressive to industry insiders, job seekers from outside the pay TV ecosphere are harder to convince.

“There’s a perception, whether true or not, that we aren’t as far along as we should be,” Renee Hauch, executive vice president of media and entertainment industry recruiter Carlsen Resources, said. “And that has affected the recruiting.”

RELATED:"The Pay in Pay TV," a look at compensation trends in the pay TV industry excerpted from CTHRA's 2015 Compensation Surveys of MSOs and programmers

Turner Sports found that an internship program originally created to give recent college grads, including student-athletes, a break into the sports media business yielded the kind of candidates it needed for wider digital initiatives.

The company designed the program in 2010 as part of its year-round partnership with the NCAA, selecting 10 recent college graduates to cover Turner’s NCAA portfolio. Six years later, the program draws 1,600 applicants, and the current class of 10 interns is working not just on content, but across product management, editorial, video production and marketing, “all with a digital focus,” Turner Sports executive vice president and general manager Matt Hong said.

“While we created the program principally as a way to help individuals break into the sports industry, something that has traditionally been tough to do, it also serves as a beneficial tool to Turner Sports to have a pool of incredible talent from which to fill permanent roles at the end of the internship year,” Hong said. About half of those who complete the program stay on with Turner Sports at the end.

Since then, Turner Sports has created a similar program to support its social media eff orts for its National Basketball Association, NCAA men’s basketball tournament, Major League Baseball, PGA and ELeague assets.

GOING OUTSIDE

“The pay TV industry is pretty small, and people maintain tight-knit relationships,” Chris Barksdale, Scripps’s vice president of human resources, said. “When you start trying to expand beyond our industry, it’s really hard to find someone with the right amount of industry knowledge and a fresh perspective.”

Add to that the tech credentials: Barksdale said Scripps is looking for cloud architects, cybersecurity specialists for “a wholly reimagined team, starting from scratch, to run and build our security going forward,” and developers. “Put anything in front of that, and we need it,” he said, citing content, apps and software developers as examples.

“Our challenge is, we have two voices,” Barksdale said. “We have strong linear TV brands, and that is really helpful in recruiting when we find people who are passionate about those. But we also have a second voice, around technology, and that is a whole brand that I am laser-focused on creating a voice for.”

He’s crafting that voice to counter any notion that an evolving traditional-TV company can’t play in the same sandbox with the Googles: “We play with cool new technologies, and we’re innovative and competitive with Silicon Valley, with great, fulfilling jobs.”

SIDEBAR: Embracing Digital to Fill Digital Jobs

As Scripps Networks Interactive copes with the fact that it’s as much a digital/technology company as a pay TV programmer, its human resources department has one overarching mission: Connect with the right candidate at the right time.

“iOS app developers are not hanging out on LinkedIn,” Chris Barksdale, SNI’s vice president of human resources, said. “You have to go find them in a place where they’re comfortable, like a forum for a technology they trust, and speak to them there. Recruiting for digital talent is a very different proposition now, vs. five to eight years ago.”

In its quest to connect with that talent, Scripps’s HR team is embracing digital tools to fill digital jobs — “technology that connects us to the places that our target candidates are and where we have a chance to define our voice,” Barksdale said.

When you’re recruiting against Google and Netflix, you can’t lose any time. Scripps HR has streamlined the way it recruits candidates, tracks applicants and fills positions by overhauling its backend HR system and giving staff mobile front-end tools.

“All of our stuff is in one system, within the same infrastructure, and it’s all current,” Barksdale said. “I can use it on my phone, my iPad, my laptop, and on each I can do all the things I need to do as an HR manager.”

With a new infrastructure and mobility in place, Barksdale is moving on to phase two: bolting on additional digital tools to maximize recruiters’ reach and efficiency.

“As jobs become harder to fill and we shift the way we look for talent, we need our recruiters to spend more time sourcing candidates and less time on tasks,” Barksdale said.

On the heels of its second-straight yearly win in the primetime ratings, ESPN will look to score another cable ratings record with its Jan. 11 telecast of the College Football Playoff Championship Game between Clemson and Alabama. Last year, a cable-record 33.6 million viewers watched Ohio State defeat Oregon in the inaugural title game.

ESPN senior vice president of global research and analytics Artie Bulgrin recently spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the 24-hour sports network’s ratings success in 2015, and how well it expects to score with the championship game. In a wide-ranging interview, he also handicapped the the network’s odds for a threepeat in the yearly primetime ratings.

UPDATE:Alabama-Clemson Game Fails to Score Ratings Record

MCN:Were you surprised by ESPN’s second-straight strong primetime ratings performance in 2015?

Artie Bulgrin: This is actually extraordinary, because last year was the first year we won primetime across the board, and now we’ve done it again this year. I think the reason for this is primarily because sports and live programming is what we are virtually all day long, and that’s proving to be a significant advantage in a world where virtually everything else can be time-shifted.

We are in a TV world that’s going through a period of tremendous fragmentation. There’s more choice than ever before, particularly in primetime. Our events are performing extremely well and holding up year after year; there’s virtually no erosion to our events. What’s happening here is that among sports fans — young and old, male and female — sports programming moves up in the hierarchy of live television viewing when they are making their television choices.

MCN:Going into 2016, are you confident you can keep the streak going?

AB: I think we can, because we have the rights to the biggest live sports events and our news and information is still a huge draw for us and will continue to be so. At the same time, we know sports fans are using ESPN in different ways across numerous platforms.

Our cross-platform connection to our fans each and every day, all day long, enables us to stay connected to our viewers on any platform and eventually navigate them to our Monday Night Football, college-football or college-basketball telecasts any night of the week. We are the quintessential cross-platform media company, and our reach across platforms allows us to stay in contact with our fans across the day, which is a really big deal.

MCN:Does ESPN’s primetime win vindicate the network after many pundits questioned its ability to remain the sports leader after suffering sizeable subscriber losses?

AB: I don’t know if it’s vindication or not, but we have plenty of viewers out there. Sports fans are still connected to multichannel services, and I think this is proof of it — it’s proof of the appeal of sports in a multichannel space.

MCN:Last year’s ESPN college-football championship telecast set an all-time cable viewing record. Do you foresee a repeat performance from this year’s telecast?

AB: I think we will. In many ways, we’re in a better position for that final championship game than we were last year, because viewers were still going through an educational process moving from the [Bowl Championship Series] to the [College Football Playoff] process. I think we’ve done an extraordinary job promoting this, heading into these last final weeks, and we know for a fact that knowledge about the College Football Playoff and also intent to view is very strong, for the simple reason that the fans understand what it’s all about, they understand the system and there’s a lot at stake. We’re looking forward to seeing the ratings after [tonight’s] final championship game. I think we will do very well and we’ll get off to a very, very fast start.

MCN:Should viewers look for anything different on-air from ESPN in 2016?

AB: I think we have a winning formula now, but we’ll have international soccer, Euro 2016, so that will help us out a bit. But beyond that, it’s a steady slate that will continue to pace us during the year.

SIDEBAR: Disney, Nick Win ’15 in Total Day

Disney Channel and Nickelodeon finished in a dead tie in 2015 for the top spot among cable networks on a 24-hour basis. Disney also matched Nick among kids 2-11 and was the top choice among kids 6-11 and tweens 9-14, according to Nielsen.

Most Watched Cable Networks Among Total Viewers, 2015 (Total Day)

Network                            Total Viewers
Disney Channel. . . . . . . . . . . .1.23 million
Nickelodeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.23 million
Adult Swim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.12 million
Fox News Channel . . . . . . . . .1.08 million
Cartoon Network . . . . . . . . . .1.00 million
USA Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . .974,000
ESPN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906,000
TNT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905,000
HGTV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 830,000
Nick at Nite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .776,000

SOURCE: Nielsen

Dish Network and Time Warner have officially buried the hatchet, announcing a carriage deal for its Turner Broadcasting System cable networks and Home Box Office for the satellite giant’s 14 million customers.

Dish and Turner were briefly locked in a carriage battle back in October – eight networks, including CNN and Cartoon Network went dark temporarilyon Oct. 20, but returned in early November after the parties decided to extend carriage as they negotiated a new agreement. One of the biggest benefits of the extension at the time was that it avoided a blackout of Turner’s two biggest networks – TBS and TNT – which were set to expire on Dec. 5.

That extension, which ended last night, allowed Dish’s over-the-top service, Sling TV to carry the channels unencumbered since its launch in January and let the satellite TV service carry TBS and TNT through the early rounds of the “March Madness” NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament, which has attracted record ratings for the channels.

“Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting and HBO have successfully completed separate distribution agreements with Dish,” Time Warner said in a statement.” We’re pleased that the Dish customers we all serve can continue to enjoy Turner and HBO’s popular programming on multiple platforms.”

Notre Dame's return to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1979, a pair of tight contests, and Kentucky's demolition of West Virginia were the tickets to the best ever Sweet 16 Thursday with the Nielsens under the current format.

CBS and TBS's March 26 coverage of the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship averaged a 9.1 overnight rating and 16 share, based on Nielsen metered market data. That was the best-ever performance for the opening night of the Sweet 16 round, since the tourney established its current TV format in 1991.  Moreover, the delivery jumped 30% from the 7.0/13 for the corresponding night during the 2014 version of March Madness.

Thursday dunked record ratings in both telecast windows.  TBS and CBS posted up a 9.3/17 overnight rating/share from 7 p.m.-10 p.m. (ET), the highest rating for the game window since 1991 and a 39% increase over last year. CBS featured Notre Dame's 81-70 win over Wichita State (pictured)  therein, while TBS presented Wisconsin rallying to beat North Carolina, 79-72.

From 9:45 p.m.-12:45 a.m., the network teammates averaged an 8.9/16, matching 1992 and 1993 as the highest rating for the game window since 1991 and up 20% versus 2014. The nightcaps showcased Kentucky's 78-39 crushing of WVU on CBS and Arizona pulling past Xavier 68-60, down the stretch, on the cable service.

To date, the tournament  across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV has averaged a 7.0/15,  its best showing through Thursday’s regional semifinals in the current TV format, and 9% higher than in 2014.

Digitally, NCAA March Madness Live has also delivered a record-setting 59 million live video streams through Thursday, a 10% increase over last year. The platform has generated 12.5 million live hours of video consumption through the second Thursday of the tournament, an all-time best and 11% amelioration through the same period a year ago.  Thursday’s Sweet 16 coverage led to a 59% increase among live video streams and a 53% spike in live hours of video consumption over the comparable period in 2014. 

Socially, the tourney has also been a winner, grossing a record 134 million total social impressions across Facebook and Twitter through the second Thursday, That represents a 46% leap over 2014's level.

For this year’s Final Four, Turner Sports is branding its team streams with the Bleacher Report banner.

As was the case last year, TBS, TNT and truTV will combine to televise the national semifinals of the 2015 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, offering viewers three distinctive feeds. This time, though, Turner is brandishing a marketing assist for one of its key digital properties.

While TBS, tipping at 6 p.m. on April 4 from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, will feature the main telecast of the Final Four matchups with commentary by Jim Nantz, analysts Grant Hill and Bill Raftery and reporter Tracy Wolfson, TNT and truTV will feature team-specific telecasts under the “Team Stream Presented by Bleacher Report.”

Last year, the teamcasts help Turner dunk the two largest college basketball audiences in cable history.

The “Team Stream Presented by Bleacher Report” coverage will reflect four independently produced telecasts – two apiece airing on TNT and truTV – with all aspects of the presentation trained on the schools participating in the semifinals.  

This year’s coverage will also include an increased amount of integrated elements between the on-air presentation and Bleacher Report to further enhance the fan experience across all platforms.

Among the components: 

*Comprehensive team and player storylines;

*Custom graphics, music and show packaging;

* Additional cameras capturing team content and school-specific replays; and

* Halftime shows focused on each team with feature stories on each individual school.

“Associating our team-specific coverage of the NCAA Final Four on TNT and truTV with Bleacher Report is a natural evolution given the popularity of Bleacher Report and its industry-leading ability to connect with fans at the teams and topics level,” said Lenny Daniels, president of Turner Sports. “We believe combining our on-air treatment with our leading digital assets will offer fans an even better experience across all platforms.”

Fans can also access live streaming coverage of the three distinct presentations for each Final Four game via NCAA March Madness Live. 

Authenticated users can access the action streaming through the Watch TNT, Watch TBS and Watch truTV apps and via www.tntdrama.com/watchtnt, www.tbs.com/watchtbs and www.trutv.com/live by logging in with the user name and password provided by their TV service provider.

During its first year presenting the Final Four matchups, Turner scored a 6.9 rating (8.2 cable) and 11.7 million watchers for the UConn-Florida opener, while the Kentucky-Wisconsin nightcap drew a 9.2 rating (11.0 cable) and 16.3 million watchers for the Wildcats last-second win.

A breakdown showed that Wisconsin-Kentucky tallied 10.4 million viewers on TBS, with 4.3 million for the UK teamcast on TNT and 1.56 million espying the Badgers' vantage on truTV.

As for the first game, the count was 7.09 million on TBS, 3.7 million on TNT for Gators fans and 851,000 for Huskies’ supporters on truTV.

At this year's NCAA Media Day in Manhattan, Turner Broadcasting System president David Levy said there would be marketing around the flanking telecasts.  Along those lines, Turner plans to run general message ads about the availability of the team streams during the upcoming Sweet 16 and Elite Eight coverage that will ultimately determine the Final Four combatants.

Once the matchups have been set, the programmer's on-air and digital platform messaging will become more specific. It will also flank those efforts by targeting fans of the respective teams via digital and social platforms, as well as in-maket through MSO and other distributors.

Three rounds in, the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship continues to rack up multimedia platform records. 

Through Sunday, March 22, the linear coverage on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV averaged a 6.7 overnight/14 share to stand as the highest ever mark for the event through its first Sunday, since the tournament expanded to its current television format in 1991.

Measured versus last, this year’s version of March of Madness was up 6% from a 6.3/14 last year, according to Nielsen metered market data.

This weekend’s third-round coverage on March 21-22 (pictured, Michigan State's toppling of the No. 2 East seed, Virginia) netted a 7.3/16, the best for an opening weekend of the NCAA tournament in 22 years and 7% higher than during the corresponding stage in 2014.

Digitally, NCAA March Madness Live has also generated a record-setting 54 million live video streams through Sunday, 7% increase more than last year. According to Conviva and Adobe Analytics,  NCAA March Madness Live generated more than 11 million live hours of video consumption through the first week of the tournament, up 8% from the same period a year ago.  

Socially, the NCAA tournament grossed a record 108 million total social impressions across Facebook and Twitter through Sunday, a 40% jump over 2014, according to Facebook Insights and Twitter for social analytics.

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Continuing its multimedia momentum, the 2015 NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Championship set linear TV and streaming marks through the first Saturday of the tournament.

The event, airing on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, netted its all-time highest rating for the first Saturday since it expanded to four telecast windows across the day in 1991, boosting the tourney to a record 6.5 overnight rating/14 share average through March 21, according to Nielsen. That was 8% greater than the 6.0 average a year ago, the previous record-holder.

For its part, digital platform NCAA March Madness Live has delivered a record-setting 47 million live video streams through Saturday, up 7% from last year, according to Conviva and Adobe Analytics.

Saturday’s contests – featuring No. 1 Kentucky and the upset of the East’s top seed Villanova -- averaged a 7.4 overnight rating/17 share, up 14% compared to a 6.5/14 in 2014, according to Nielsen metered market data. That was the best first Saturday performance since the 1991 change.    

The first primetime telecast window  -- 5:15 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. (ET) -- on Saturday scored a 10.3/23 share, the highest rating for the game window since the introduction of the format. It was up 20% from an 8.6/19 last year.

The second primetime window -- from 7:45 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. averaged an 8.9/17 to tie 1993 as the highest rating for the game window of all time with the format.  That performance marked a 9% jump from the 8.2/15 in the corresponding telecast window in 2014.

Coverage of North Carolina State’s 71-68 win over Villanova (pictured) -- the biggest upset in this year's tournament to date -- bridged the primetime windows.

Showcasing Kentucky’s 64-51 triumph over Cincinnati, the second daytime telecast window from 2:45 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. averaged a 6.7/16, the best average since 2007, and 29% ahead of last year’s pace.  

Additionally, the NCAA tourney grossed a record 82 million total social impressions across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram through Saturday for a 35% increase over 2014.

Turner Sports and CBS Sports have announced that former pro basketball player Grant Hill and former college basketball coach Bill Raftery will call the NCAA Final Fourand National Championship games on the networks this year. The two analysts will join the team of Jim Nantz and reporter Tracy Wolfson to call games together throughout the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

While Raftery is entering his 33rdyear calling the NCAA Tournament, Hill, who joined the collective NCAA Tournament coverage last year as a studio analyst, makes his debut this year as a tourney game analyst. The two team up with Nantz and Wolfson for the first time to call the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament semifinals on Saturday, March 14, and championship game on Sunday, March 15, on CBS.

Raftery has served as a regular-season and NCAA Tournament game analyst since joining CBS Sports in 1983. He also has been a game analyst for radio coverage of the NCAA Final Four for the last 23 years and has been elected as a 2015 inductee for the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame. Hill, a two-time NCAA basketball champion at Duke University and member of the College Basketball Hall of Fame, joined Turner Sports in 2013 following a 19-year NBA career. He is a game and studio analyst for Turner Sports, as well as host of NBA TV’s weekly NBA Inside Stuff show.

This marks the fifth consecutive year CBS Sports and Turner Sports will provide live coverage of all 67 games from the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship across four national television networks – TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV.  The Final Four on Saturday, April 4, will be televised on TBS, and the National Championship on Monday, April 6, will air on CBS. 

Fox Sports Go is set live stream the women’s college basketball game between Mount St. Joseph University and Hiram College, that will also air on Nov. 2 at 2 p.m on Fox Sports Regional Networks.

Fox College Sports and Fox Sports Ohio will also televise the game, and the streaming will be available to all users regardless of their video providers.

Freshman for Mount St. Joseph Lauren Hill will have get the chance to achieve her dream of playing in one college basketball game, after the NCAA agreed to play the game earlier. Hill was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a form of brain cancer that is currently an incurable condition.

Fox Sports Go is available through iOS, Android, Kindle Fire tablets and Fire phones, select Windows devices, Surface Tablets and on desktops.

CBS and Turner continue to net ratings gains for the 2014 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

Through the second weekend of the tournament -- which saw Wisconsin, Florida, Kentucky and UConn punch their ticket to North Texas – CBS and Turner Sports are averaging 9.8 million viewers. That puts this year’s tournament on track to have the best viewership since 1993.

The 2014 NCAA tourney moves to AT&T Stadium in North Texas with the Final Four on April 5, with TBS having the telecast honors for the first time this year. Overall top-seeded Florida takes on UConn in the early game at 6:09 p.m. (ET), followed by Wisconsin facing off against Kentucky in the nightcap at 8:49 p.m. (or 30 minutes after the first game).

TBS will air the national broadcast with TNT and truTV airing localized “teamcasts.” Announcers and pregame show hosts for those telecasts will be disclosed this week.

Saturday’s Elite Eight matchups delivered the highest-rated and largest audiences ever for college basketball on cable.

The West regional final that went Wisconsin’s way over Arizona in overtime and sent the Badgers to the Final Four on April 5 averaged 9.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen fast nationals data, to rank as the medium’s most-watched college basketball contest ever. Wisconsin-Arizona averaged a 5.8 U.S. household rating.

The earlier Elite Eight matchup in which Florida finally quelled the quest of the upstart Dayton Flyers scored with 7.2 million viewers and briefly held the distinction as the most-watched college basketball in cable history. Florida-Dayton delivered a 4.3 household rating.

TBS's twin telecasts -- Saturday marked the first time Elite Eight action, more formally known as the regional finals, aired on cable -- averaged 8.6 million viewers.

The audience records will likely fall next Saturday when TBS airs the Final Four doubleheader for the first time from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.  TBS's national feed, which will feature Jim Nantz and Greg Anthony on the game call, will be flanked by local "Teamcasts" on TNT and truTV, each of which will have their own production and camera angles, announce teams tied to the participating schools, and pre-game and halftime shows.

The Wisconsin-Arizona telecast peaked with 12.6 million total viewers in the 11 p.m. (ET) quarter hour, while Florida-Dayton maxed out with 9.6 million total viewers from 8 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., as the Gators earned a berth in North Texas, after failing in this round the prior three years.

Overall, through Saturday, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship averaged 9.6 million watchers, the highest viewership for the tournament since 1993, with the average audience up 2% compared with the similar stage of the 2013 tourney.