Get ready for even more madness this March during the NCAA Tournament.
The NCAA signed a new 14-year $10.8 billion contract with CBS and Turner Sports last April and the new 68-team tournament’s TV deal will allow for more staggered starts of games, so multiple contests aren’t ending at the same time.
The deal means all games in the tournament would be televised live nationally for the first time. Because Turner’s three cable channels don’t have the same commitments to the nightly news and other regular programming as CBS, the tournament games will be more spread out, starting this season. That includes prime-time games on TBS, TNT and truTV.
Last season, when only CBS broadcast games, the first three contests on the opening Thursday afternoon started within 10 minutes of each other. Now those games will start at least 30 minutes apart.
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