NCAA March Madness: A Comprehensive Guide to TV Coverage
NCAA March Madness is the branding used for coverage of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. It is a joint production by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network, and TNT Sports, the national sports division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) in the United States.
Broadcasting Agreement and Channels
The agreement between CBS and WBD began with the 2011 tournament. Games are televised on CBS, TNT, TBS, and truTV, with all games streaming on Paramount+ or HBO Max. CBS Sports Network has re-aired games from all networks.
Initially, CBS continued to provide coverage during most rounds, with the three WBD channels covering much of the early rounds up to the Second Round. truTV covers the First Four, and CBS/TBS air the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight.
This joint tournament coverage is distinct from CBS and TNT Sports' regular-season coverage, which are produced independently through their sports divisions.
Historical Context of the Broadcast Rights
On April 22, 2010, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) reached a 14-year agreement with CBS and the Turner Broadcasting System for joint broadcast rights to the Division I men's college basketball tournament. This agreement was worth US$10.8 billion. This came after speculation that ESPN would try to obtain the rights to future tournament games.
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The NCAA took advantage of an opt-out clause in its 1999 deal with CBS (which ran through 2013, even though the NCAA had the option of ending the agreement after the 2010 championship) to announce its intention to sign a new contract with CBS and Turner Sports, a division of WarnerMedia, which later was absorbed into Warner Bros. Discovery.
The agreement, which runs through 2032 (extended from 2024 in 2016), stipulates that all games are available nationally.
Game Distribution Across Networks
All First Four games air on truTV. During the first and second rounds, a featured game in each time "window" is broadcast terrestrially on CBS (15 games), while all other games are shown on TBS (12 games), TNT (12 games) or truTV (nine games). Sweet 16 (regional semifinal) and Elite 8 (regional finals) games are split between CBS and TBS.
In 2014 and 2015, Turner channels had exclusive rights to the Final Four (with standard coverage airing on TBS), and CBS broadcast the championship game.
The same number of "windows" are provided to CBS as before, although the start times of games are staggered, with action lasting later in the night and fewer simultaneous games than in the previous format.
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March Madness On Demand (now called March Madness Live) remained unchanged, with Turner Interactive taking over management of both that service and NCAA.com at the start of 2011. The contract was expected to be signed after a review by the NCAA Board of Directors.
In 2012, the service was changed; only games televised by CBS are available for free. All other games are available to authenticated subscribers to the channels on participating television providers.
Selection Sunday and Pregame/Postgame Coverage
The CBS-WarnerMedia coverage formally begins with The Selection Show-in which the teams participating in the tournament are announced, which follows CBS's coverage of the final game on Selection Sunday.
During the tournament itself, truTV broadcasts pre-game coverage, Infiniti NCAA Tip-Off, while TBS and TruTV also air the post-game show Inside March Madness.
In 2016, CBS extended the selection show to a two-hour format; however, the new special was criticized by viewers for being too padded, while the full bracket was leaked online shortly into the broadcast.
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In 2017, the selection show was shortened to a 90-minute format, promising to reveal the bracket in a more timely manner.
In 2018, the selection show aired for the first time on TBS, with a studio audience and in a two-hour format, in which the entire field of the tournament would be revealed within the first 10 minutes.
Contract Extension and External Factors
On April 16, 2016, the contract was extended to 2032 in an $8.8 billion deal. WarnerMedia began the process of dissolving the Turner Broadcasting System in March 2019.
The 2020 tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
The addition of NHL coverage affected coverage during the 2022 First Four on March 16. When the game between the Boston Bruins and the Minnesota Wild ran long, neither TBS (due to AEW Dynamite) nor truTV (due to continuing coverage of the Rutgers-Notre Dame First Four game) were available for the start of the Tampa Bay Lightning-Seattle Kraken NHL game.
Teamcast Coverage
For 2014, truTV and TNT aired special "Teamcast" coverage of the Final Four alongside TBS's conventional coverage, which featured commentators and other guests representing the schools in each game. The consortium planned to tap local radio announcers from each team for the teamcasts, the majority refused due to commitments in calling the games for their local radio networks.
Announcers and Studio Teams
CBS and TNT pool their resources for the tournament. While CBS's Jim Nantz remained the lead voice for the tournament until 2023, CBS's analysts are joined by those from TNT's college basketball coverage. TNT's lead play-by-play man Brian Anderson, who is also the #1 play-by-play announcer for TBS's baseball coverage, is provided by TNT. Former lead NBA on TNT voice Marv Albert did the same with Anderson, until he ended his association with CBS.
Inside the NBA host Ernie Johnson splits hosting duties in the New York studio with CBS's college basketball studio host Adam Zucker, while Adam Lefkoe hosts from Atlanta. Greg Gumbel had led studio hosting duties until 2024, when he took that year's tournament off due to family health issues. Gumbel later died on December 27, 2024.
Until 2021 due to COVID-19, and again in 2023, Johnson and Gumbel both hosted from New York during the first week of the tournament, with Johnson hosting during the afternoon sessions and Gumbel hosting in primetime.
Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith, both from Inside, join Johnson, Zucker, and CBS analysts Clark Kellogg and Wally Szczerbiak in the studio in New York City, while Lefkoe is joined by TNT Sports colleague Candace Parker, CBS analysts Seth Davis, and legendary Villanova head coach Jay Wright in Atlanta. Wright later joins the New York City crew during the Elite 8.
Graphics and Theme Music
During the first five years of the television deal, all games used Turner Sports graphics, which reflect from Turner Sports' NBA coverage. With CBS Sports unveiling a new branding look at Super Bowl 50 in February 2016, a new graphics package was unveiled. This time, the networks all used CBS's graphics.
Despite this being the first year that the Final Four and National Championship aired on TBS (as part of an every-other-year arrangement), the 2016 CBS graphics are now used for all games, including those on TBS, TNT and truTV. However, the games use a slightly different version of the scoreboard that has the network logo in the middle, and in black, as opposed to the usual white logo on the left. This tournament version of the scoreboard is anchored to the edges of the screen with shadows, which light up in team colors after a made basket, an effect not seen on CBS's graphics anywhere else.
In 2018, CBS and Turner modified their logo for March Madness, by changing it to the logo introduced by the NCAA in 2016. Following CBS Sports' rebranding during the week of Super Bowl LV, as part of CBS' unified branding, CBS and WarnerMedia unveiled a new in-game graphics package for the tournament during the Selection Show. The tournament version of this scoreboard uses a similar layout of CBS's regular season graphics, with the CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV logos on the left side of the score bar, and an extra bar being added to the end displaying what round and which region each game is in (e.g. NCAA West 1st Round).
Beginning with the 2025 NCAA tournament, the windows scoreboard time and slots have changed, with the usual NCAA logo replaced with the NCAA March Madness logo that was presented in 2016 overlaying on the right side with no backing at all (except for the logo sponsors that’ll still have backings), with the lines for each window slot are now blue instead of white.
All four networks use a variation of the CBS College Basketball Theme during the tournament, arranged by Trevor Rabin, who scores the iconic Inside the NBA theme. CBS had continued to use the arrangement that had been in use since 2004 during its regular season coverage, but switched to the March Madness version during the 2021-22 season.
For 2018, CBS and Turner used Irish-Rock band U2's song "American Soul", from their new album Songs of Experience. They also used "Say Amen (Saturday Night)" by American rock band Panic!. 2019 featured the return of The Black Keys to March Madness, with their comeback single Lo/Hi, off their comeback album Let's Rock, being used as the main song for CBS and Turner's coverage. CBS also used "Hey Look Ma, I Made It" by Panic!.
2021 continued the planned trend of using electronic dance music, with CBS and Turner using "Big Love" by American DJ duo Louis the Child and American hip hop duo EarthGang. CBS also used This Is Heaven by American pop singer Nick Jonas for the Final Four.
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