March Madness advertising sales are outpacing last season, with CBS Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports “virtually sold out” of inventory, according to Adweek.
Collectively, the two TV partners have “significantly” surpassed last year’s record haul of $1 billion in ad sales for the men’s NCAA tournament, WBD Sports executive VP of sales Jon Diament said Wednesday.
The NCAA’s media partners see mid-to-high-single-digit increases for the tournament, added John Bogusz, executive vice president of sales at Paramount Advertising. The NCAA March Madness Live app is also virtually sold out.
Most TV commercials will be those of NCAA corporate partners such as Coca-Cola, Capital One, AT&T, Pizza Hut, Buick, and Nissan.
CBS will kick off the Big Dance with its annual Selection Sunday show at 6 p.m. ET. Greg Gumbel will host the annual bracket reveal, along with former Villanova coach Jay Wright and analysts Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis.
The 2023 tournament begins with the First Four games on March 14-15. The men’s Final Four is scheduled for April 1, followed by the NCAA Championship Game on April 3.
CBS and WBD Sports will team up for live coverage of all 67 games across CBS, TNT, TBS, and truTV.
CBS will air the Final Four and Championship Game. All games will also be streamed on NCAA March Madness Live.
