Can college basketball turn TVs fortunes around?

At a moment where linear TV is in something of a lull, with last years strikes still being felt and a continued weak advertising market, the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament might be just the thing the market needs.

As usual, this years games will be televised on CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV, and will stream online via Max (for the TNT, TBS and TruTV games), Paramount+ (for the CBS games) and the March Madness Live app. John Bogusz, the head of ad sales for CBS Sports (he will retire later this year), says that this years tournament is trending up high single digits in terms of dollars and pricing, as sports outpace entertainment in the marketplace. The entire tournament is virtually sold out, he says, with the Final Four and championship in particularly high demand (they are holding back a few sports in case there is last-minute interest).

I would say its also reflective of the ratings, says Jon Diament, the head of ad sales for TNT Sports. The ratings for high profile sports continue to be very consistent, the demos are very strong. And theres some really cool sponsorships and extensions associated with all those great properties in social and in betting and all the other things that sports brings to the table that marketers embrace. So I think sports has an advantage right now in the market based on audience flow and advertiser interest.

While ratings for March Madness were down last year (as was the case for most of linear TV), last years championship game between UConn and San Diego State averaged nearly 15 million viewers, making it the most-watched basketball game last year, besting even the NBA Finals.

March Madness has another advantage: While the regular seasons of the major sports leagues drag on for months, culminating in high-profile playoffs, during March Madness every game is a knockout match, and it takes place over weeks, guaranteeing intense interest from viewers.

It also makes for a tough schedule for the studio team.

Its always fun. Well, other than Thursday and Friday [the first week] its always fun, says Charles Barkley, the Inside the NBA analyst who will once again be a part of this years March Madness studio team. When you are on television for 12 hours straight, it takes every ounce of energy, its a long day.

Once you get past the first two days it is smooth sailing. But when youre trying to sit there and theyve got four games on at a time, and your head is on a swivel cause you got to talk about this game, youre gonna talk about his game, were gonna talk about this game, Barkley added. And thank God weve got a great research crew. But the first two days of March Madness, man, they are a lot of work. I mean Anytime you go into place and it is daylight you dont come out until its dark, you know its been a long day.

But that barrage of games makes for great TV, with both streaming (where fans watch multiple games at once) and even linear TV, benefitting. And as Diament notes, the fact that so many people (including former President Obama) make filling out a bracket an annual tradition, increases engagement and interest further,

I think the viewership has been fragmented in that theres different ways to watch the tournament. So while you might look at linear ratings being somewhat flat, theres tons of people watching streaming devices and connected TVs and March Madness Live and now on Max and Paramount+, Diament says. Theres a lot of noise around the tournament, from an ancillary perspective.

The home and insurance categories are particularly strong from an advertiser perspective, the executives added.

You have 20 corporate partners all leaning in creating custom content, activating on property, activating online through digital and social, you know, these are robust programs, Diament says.

With the NFL in the offseason, MLB in preseason, and something of a lull in the NBA and NHL schedules, March Madness might be just the thing to goose TV, at least until the NBA playoffs or this summers Paris Olympics.

The Olympics are the greatest sporting event Ive ever been a part of in my life and this is a close second. Its amazing. Every year something happens that youre like, wow. Im glad I was a part of watching that,' Barkley says. I said it: Even Republicans and Democrats cant screw up March Madness. Thats how awesome this product is.