NEW YORK (AP) — The Final Four’s television viewership is down after its move to cable.
The two NCAA semifinals Saturday averaged a total of 14 million viewers, an 11 percent decrease from last year’s games on CBS. That number included viewers of the main coverage on TBS along with the school-specific “TeamCasts” on TNT and truTV. Turner Sports and CBS did not receive network-by-network ratings breakdowns from Nielsen.
TBS is in about 14 percent fewer homes than CBS.
This was the first time the semifinals were on cable. Turner and CBS are in the fourth season of a 14-year, $10.8 billion deal to jointly broadcast the tournament. Monday’s title game will be on CBS.