For a mainstream media business hungry for a few victories anywhere, there is a lot of winning already locked in by the gold mine that is the men’s – and now women’s – NCAA basketball tournaments. To quote Watergate hero Deep Throat, you’ve got to “follow the money.”
Local broadcast stations
Local broadcasters have been at something of a crossroads for at least a generation or two. Body blows have rained down from the flood of competitors for audience attention from cable networks to the internet to social media to gaming to streaming platforms. But the NCAA tournament is still distinctive in its localized character, and from markets that don’t usually experience such broadly popular home-grown content.
The last four winners of the major U.S. sports leagues have all come from the country’s biggest media markets. The Los Angeles Dodgers, representing the 2d largest media market, won baseball’s World Series (defeating the New York Yankees from the largest market). The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl as ambassadors of the 4th largest TV market. The NBA champion Boston Celtics hail from the 9th largest media market. Even the NHL’s Stanley Cup winners, Miami’s Florida Panthers, represent the 16th largest market.
But take a look at the universities and their local communities at the epicenter of college basketball. Sure Houston, Dallas (TCU), LA (UCLA) and New York (St. John’s) are all at the dance. But look at the mix of smaller markets with some of the most prominent teams:
- Gainesville, FL (U. Florida) – 154
- Lubbock, TX (Texas Tech) – 143
- Auburn, AL (Auburn U) – 107
- Lansing, MI (Michigan State) – 103
- South Bend, IN (Notre Dame) – 100
- Columbia, SC (U. South Carolina) – 63
- Knoxville, TN (U. Tennessee) – 60
It’s not just broadcasting the games themselves on local CBS broadcast affiliates (shared with plenty of cable networks and streaming platforms). It’s the ability of local stations to devote considerable time on their news broadcasts to features about the teams and their athletes and fans traveling all over the country and representing their local communities. There’s plenty of opportunity not just for viewers but for local businesses looking to align themselves with local “winners.”
Legacy media companies Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery
You can hit rinse and repeat for a description of all the challenges facing global media companies. Few have been more challenged than Paramount, the owners of both the CBS TV network and its group of local broadcast stations, and WBD, owner of the former Turner family of cable networks from TNT to TBS to TruTV. In 2011, these companies began their then ground-breaking collaboration to televise every March Madness game live, a deal that now extends to 2032. So, March Madness is a welcome time to shine, especially in the aftermath of WBD’s loss of the NBA rights beginning next season.
The rewards for Paramount and WBD are significant. They bring in an estimated $1 billion in incremental ad sales revenues over just the duration of the tournament. The games supply a welcome platform for CBS and the Turner networks to promote other sports content from The Masters to Premier League soccer to the Stanley Cup Playoffs as well as entertainment programming that desperately needs outlets to help it break through the media clutter. And the games and attendant programming that will stream on Max and Paramount Plus will undoubtedly deliver more new subscribers – just ask Peacock how they did with the Olympics and NFL playoff games.
NCAA and its members
The central governing body of college sports has a rough few years. After long holding itself out as a leader in “amateur” athletics, the NCAA was slapped down by the U.S. Supreme Court which declared 9-0 in 2021 that colleges could not deny athletes financial payments. Athletes now have access to NIL money (the rights to use an athlete’s name, image, and likeness), albeit in a frenzied and largely unregulated market that is itself subject to a flood of legal challenges including on antitrust grounds. Dartmouth student athletes among others have fought to be unionized. The NCAA is now looking to Congress to help sort things out with all of this – good luck with that.
In the meantime, there is the flood of money that comes in through March Madness. In its 2024 fiscal year the NCAA’s total revenue reached roughly $1.4 billion, with $1 billion coming from March Madness alone. The NCAA redistributes approximately 60% of this revenue to its member universities. And the tournament itself generates millions of dollars’ worth of unpaid advertising on behalf of the teams playing in it. As the price of college tuition costs continue to soar, those that get a prominent place on the national sports stage get a welcome spotlight to stand out from their competitors for top students.
Betting sites
Beyond the fun of taking part in your office’s March Madness pool betting on this event is a massive business. Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the congressional ban on sports betting in 2018, 38 states and the District of Columbia now legally allow sports betting. The American Gaming Association (AGA) estimates that approximately $3.1 billion will be legally wagered on the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments this year. That is 15% higher than a year ago. And it is more than double the $1.4 billion bet on the Super Bowl. With 64 men’s and 64 women’s teams competing that is a huge set of fan bases to tap into. To paraphrase the late great Tip O’Neill, maybe all betting is ultimately local.
I’m sorry, I can’t lend much help in your own March Madness betting pool (my own rooting interest is with Auburn and especially its coach (and fellow Boston native) Bruce Pearl). But best of luck to all!