It's Tournament Time!

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team.jpgWith Selection Sunday creating bracket buzz across the nation, I wanted to share a few quick facts regarding the magnitude of 'March Madness':

  • Over 130 million people watched the 2007 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in 2007
  • 40.3 million people watched the 2007 championship game
  • CBS has an 11-year, $6 billion dollar deal with the NCAA to be the exclusive rights holder of all television, radio, satellite, digital, Internet, and home video rights of the event
  • CBS is charging $85,000 per :30 commercial advertisement for the day games and $350,000 for early round and prime time games
  • CBS is charging $1.4 million per :30 commercial advertisement for the two (2) Final Four games and the championship game
  • CBS ad television revenue will top $450 million and possibly reach $545 million when factoring in Internet and other media outlet revenues (2007 ad revenue: $400 million) 
  • Top five (5) corporate spenders for 'March Madness' include:
    • General Motors (Pontiac) (approx. $70 million)
    • Coca Cola ($22 million)
    • AT&T ($20.7 million)
    • Anheuser-Busch ($15.8 million)
    • SABMiller ($13.8 million)
      • Other "Big" Spenders" Include: Enterprise Rent-A-Car, The Hartford Group, State Farm Insurance, Kraft's DiGiorno, Lowe's, Sheraton (all six of the aforementioned are Official Partners of the NCAA)