NCAA's March Madness Scores Big TV Ads, But Records Slower Growth Than Rivals

NCAA’s “March Madness” -- the month-long men’s college basketball event set to begin next week -- remains a major earner among post-season sports. But it has seen slower growth than other sports.

Kantar Media says the NCAA playoffs pulled in $1.29 billion in national TV advertising in 2017 -- second only to the NFL playoffs/post-season (including the Super Bowl). In January and February, the NFL posted $1.55 billion in 2017.

But the NCAA playoffs only rose 3.3% in national TV advertising dollars, on an annualized growth rate between 2012 and 2017 -- the lowest of all major post-season sports. The NFL was up 9.7% during that period.

With regard to the NCAA, Kantar Media notes that the 3% to 4% rise in national TV advertising dollars tracks at a similar rate to increases in rights fees paid by CBS and Turner.

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After the NCAA and the NFL, the NBA playoffs was third overall (April through June) in total dollars in 2017, at $934 million. The NBA witnessed the greatest five-year annualized growth rate hike of any post-season sport -- up 11.7% since 2012.

Major League Baseball’s post-season (October-November) came in next, at $569 million -- 9.8% higher since 2012. College football post-season bowl games (December-January) were at $399 million, climbing 8.8% over the last five years.

Kantar’s results include pre-game, in-game, and post-game advertising from related programming.

The top five advertisers for the March Madness event a year ago were: General Motors, at $83 million; AT&T, with $66 million; Coca-Cola, at $56 million; Capital One Financial, with $50 million; and Berkshire Hathaway (GEICO), at $41 million.

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