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March Madness spreads to cable with Turner-CBS deal
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Portions of the NCAA men's basketball tournament -- including, several years down the road, the Final Four -- will air on cable after CBS and Turner Broadcasting struck a huge deal to share rights to March Madness.Starting next year, the tournament is likely to expand to 68 teams (from its current 65), and all games will air live on CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV. Sweet 16 games will be split between CBS and cable, while regional finals, the Final Four and the championship game will remain the exclusive property of CBS through 2015.
In 2016, however, CBS and Turner will split the regional final games, and the Eye network and TBS will alternate years airing the Final Four and the title game.
The two broadcasters paid a whopping $10.8 billion for the rights, which run through 2024. The Division I men's basketball committee has unanimously recommended the expansion to 68 teams to the D-I board of directors, which will vote on it next week. There had been talk of expanding the NCAA field to 96 teams, but the smaller expansion will likely please hoops purists who didn't want to see a full extra round added to the tournament.
As part of the deal, Turner will also develop its own version of the March Madness on Demand online player.
The biggest deal for fans is the fact that all early-round games will air live on television. March Madness on Demand has been a huge success for CBS and the NCAA, but being able to watch any game on a bigger screen will be awfully nice too.
What do you think of the announcement?
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It should reach 98 teams
It should read 98 teams
If this sharing deal means that Survivor can run uninterrupted in its Thursday 8pm timeslot, then I'm all for it. March Madness messes up the flow of Survivor when Survivor has to be shifted one day earlier to the Wednesday 8pm timeslot for a week (assuming that it's not a recap episode). If you forgot to tune in a day earlier, then you have to go hunting for the episode online if you didn't set it to record on a DVR.
Good deal overall, but I hope this doesn't mean the end of watching these games live on the Web. Can you clarify?
Cable TV is all but dead for me now -- outdated, overpriced, still can't find anything worth watching, etc. -- and I can't imagine I'll still have cable or satellite TV in 2016.
I root for teams that don't make the NCAA tournament every year, so EVERY game they play is meaningful to me. I want to see the whole game, not just part of the game. I don't mind going to the Web for it.
damn who knew obama can fix the economy with his b ball skills
This is not a great deal at all and the tournament field has expanded to 68, which gets rid of that stupid play-in game, but by 2020, we'll see the Super Bowl on cable.