March Madness a Slam Dunk for TV Watch Time, Ad Impressions: TV By the Numbers

Bennedict Mathurin #0 of the Arizona Wildcats dunks the ball against Eddie Lampkin #4 of the TCU Horned Frogs during the second half in the second round game of the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Viejas Arena at San Diego State University on March 20, 2022 in San Diego, California.
The Arizona Wildcats played the TCU Horned Frogs during the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament March 20, 2022 (Image credit: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of March 14-20, showcasing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions 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 19 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).

With both the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Tournaments in full swing, basketball has audiences fixated on TV. From March 14-20, the men’s tournament tallied 9.21% of total TV minutes watched — No. 1 for the week, and 9x more than No. 2 show, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

Most-watched shows by percent share March 14-20

CBS remains atop our ranking of the most-watched networks, with 9.79% of minutes watched from March 14-20. That’s up from 6.87% the previous week, in part powered by the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

More insights around the most-watched networks from March 14-20:

Most-watched networks on TV by percent shared duration March 14-20

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. 

Men’s college basketball delivered 13.68 billion TV ad impressions from March 14-20 — 23.1% of all impressions on TV for the week, which is No. 1 among all programming, by far.

More data about the top programs by TV ad impressions during the week:

Top shows by TV ad impressions March 14-20

CBS remains No. 1 in our ad-impressions-by-network ranking from March 14-20, with over 22.3% of TV ad impressions — more than double the total for the No. 2 network, ABC.

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions from the week:

Top networks by TV ad impressions March 14-20

John Cassillo is an analyst and contributor with TV[R]EV.