The NCAA men’s basketball championship averaged 17.8 million total viewers and a 13.2 household rating, per the Nielsen fast nationals. Turner Sports and CBS share the March Madness package, and the final appeared on TNT, TBS and truTV for the first time.
Villanova defeated North Carolina 77-74 on a buzzer-beater.
The household rating was down almost 18% over last year’s final. Airing on CBS, the 2015 final was the most viewed NCAA championship in 18 years. Featuring Duke and Wisconsin, that game averaged 28.3 million total viewers, while 2014’s tallied 21.3 million.
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The 2015 contest had a 16 HH rating while 2014’s was a 12.5.
Turner called Monday’s telecast the second most-viewed college basketball telecast in the history of cable TV. The broadcast nets largely put reruns up against the sports spectacle.
Monday’s championship generated 56 million impressions across March Madness social accounts on Twitter and Facebook, according to Turner, up 112% over last year.
