RELATED: NCAA changes March Madness seedings
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The NCAA today announced an eight-year extension of its multimedia rights agreement with CBS Sports and Turner for the Division I Men's Basketball Championship. The new contract extends the agreement through 2032 and allows for the companies to air games on any channels that may be created over the life of the contract (so hopefully bye bye to TruTV).
The extension covers an eight-year period for a total rights fee of $8.8 billion. As with the current and previous contract, more than 90 percent of the revenue generated from this extension will be used to benefit college athletes through programs, services or direct distribution to member conferences and schools.
Live coverage of the Final Four national semifinals and national championship will continue to alternate between CBS and Turner each year, with CBS broadcasting the games in 2017 and TBS televising them in 2018. So we might end up with another TBS championship and we all know how that went ratings-wise this year.
Hopefully the Selection Show will be changed to an hour or even a half hour rather than the two hour fiasco it became this year. The brackets were leaked ahead of time and that led to a lot less people watching the show. Hopefully CBS learned its lesson and will give the people what they want —- a lot less talking and a lot more seed reveals.
