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State of the Screens

March Madness Generates Billions In Ad Spend

By March 20, 2018No Comments

National TV ad spending on NCAA March Madness by year (% change YoY):
1)
2013 — $1.12B
2) 2014 — $1.13B (↑ 1%)
3) 2015 — $1.19B (↑ 5%)
4) 2016 — $1.24B (↑ 4%)
5) 2017 — $1.28B (↑ 3%)

Long-term deal: CBS/Turner Broadcasting recently extended their media rights agreement with the NCAA through 2032 for $8.8B.

Quick math. $8.8B over 8 years is $1.1B/year. If we assume that ad revenue grows at 3%/year, then CBS/Turner Broadcasting will generate ≈ $11.7B in revenue over the 8-year span.

The games will be carried on the following networks:
1) CBS
2) TBS
3) TNT
4) truTV

90–95 different companies will advertise with the top-10 accounting for more than 1/3 of the total ($400M+).

All 67 games will be streamed through the March Madness app and available on 16 platforms including:
1)
iOS
2) Android
3) Apple TV
4) Apple Watch
5) Amazon Fire TV
6) Chromecast
7) Roku

Streaming accounted for 181M hours of viewing in 2016.

More: How is the internet changing March Madness?

Michael Beach

Michael Beach is the Chief Executive Officer of Cross Screen Media, a media analytics and software company that enables marketers to plan, activate, and measure CTV and linear TV at the local level. Michael is also the founder and editor of State of the Screens, a weekly newsletter focused on video advertising that is a must-read for thought leaders in the advertising industry. He has appeared in such publications as PBS Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Axios, CNBC and Bloomberg, and on NPR’s Planet Money podcast.