TV Audience

Men’s, Women’s NCAA Basketball Neck and Neck For Watch-Time

Basketball owns three of the top five spots in Inscape's ranking of the most-watched programming for Mar. 27-Apr. 2.

Eleanor Semeraro

Apr 4, 2023 • 1 min read

The final week of March Madness scored big for watch-time, with the men’s tournament capturing 1.45% of all live, linear minutes watched, per data from Inscape. Meanwhile, the women’s tournament was close behind at 1.41%. It’s worth noting that there were more women’s games than men’s during the period measured (five vs. two), including the women’s national championship on Sunday, Apr. 2 — so more opportunities for people to tune-in, bolstering women’s watch-time in general.

With 0.95% of watch-time, NBA jumps into the top five, up from No. 10 the previous week.
The new MLB season kicked off on Mar. 30, with all 30 teams playing on Opening Day, reportedly the first time that’s happened since 1968. The MLB games captured 0.85% of minutes watched during the week, putting it solidly in sixth place.
On the network side of things, CBS once again leads the ranking, although it saw a slight decrease in watch-time week-over-week, down to 8.05% from 8.17% previously. The men’s Final Four, The Price Is Right, CBS Mornings and the 2023 CMT Music Awards were some of the top programs contributing to CBS’s share of minutes watched.