CBS and TNT Sports have sold most of their available in-game March Madness inventory, as increased demand for live sports and the usual flurry of activity from the 18 NCAA corporate sponsors have conspired to make units in the three-week tournament hard to come by.
Speaking to reporters during a Zoom call Wednesday, Ryan Briganti, exec VP, head of sports sales, Paramount Advertising, confirmed that the tourney is all but out-of-sale. “We are happy to say we’re virtually sold out,” Briganti said. “This marketplace picked up earlier than it has historically, as [it] drafted off the strong demand of the general sports marketplace. That’s where we’re currently at.”
Briganti declined to offer any information about dollar volume or pricing, saying only that such intel is “just not something I’m comfortable sharing.” When pressed, the exec reiterated that the partners are “doing better than we did last year.”
The 2024 tournament generated more than $1 billion in sales over the course of 67 games, an estimate that does not factor in any make-good allotments that were deducted from the gross sales tally.
The CBS-TNT Sports relationship dates to April 2010, when the broadcaster and the cable giant agreed to a 14-year, $10.8 billion deal to share the spoils of the men’s hoops tourney. That deal was most recently re-upped in March 2016, as all parties concerned agreed to an $8.8 billion extension that runs from this year through 2032. Under the terms of the extension, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery paid $995 million for the rights to air this year’s Madness, while built-in escalators will see the 2026 fee jump to $1.02 billion.
Among the official NCAA backers—which account for around 50% of the tourney’s in-game media buys—are AT&T, Capital One, Coca-Cola, Buffalo Wild Wings, Geico, Buick, Home Depot, Nissan, Pizza Hut, Unilever and Wendy’s.
According to Jon Diament, exec VP, advertising sales, Warner Bros. Discovery, some of the most active categories in the mix include insurance, pharma, auto and banking, while Briganti added that travel and retail were also active. Both execs stressed that the in-game units began selling even earlier than usual for this year’s tourney, a surge which reflects the strength of the overall sports marketplace.
Fans will see a wealth of brand integrations during this year’s event, as an unprecedented number of athletes, on-air personalities and celebrities are slated to appear in on-screen creative across the various linear-TV and digital platforms.
The sales call was staged the day after CBS and WBD convened a media session with the heads of their respective sports units and the lead TV crew. When asked about the prospect of expanding the men’s field to 76 teams, David Berson, president and CEO of CBS Sports, voiced reservations about a change to the current format, saying, “no one wants to do anything that’s going to negatively impact the tournament … [or] do anything to take away from how special it is.”
This year’s tourney officially gets underway with the First Four on March 18 and 19, and concludes April 7 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The championship game will air on CBS, tipping off a half-hour earlier (8:50 p.m. ET) than usual in a bid to keep the broadcast from bleeding into the wee small hours of Tuesday morning for those on the East Coast.
Per Nielsen, the Eastern time zone is home to approximately 60.4 million TV households, or 48% of the national base.
