Paramount and WarnerMedia Sideline March Madness Streaming

After Covid-19 canceled the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament in 2020 and restricted the crowd size for last year’s return, advertisers were eager to be part of the first “normal” March Madness games since 2019. CBS and Turner Sports sold out their advertising inventory for the tournament earlier than ever, bringing in more than last year’s estimated $1 billion combined haul. “If you look at this past year, having sports air when they’re supposed to air and having arenas full of excited fans, it's just shown us that audiences can return, even in linear environments, to live sports at levels they were pre-pandemic,” said Jeff Gagne, svp of strategic investments at Havas Media. “From a marketing standpoint, it’s a lot of upside, certainly versus the last two chances, where a lot of marketers got the short end of the stick.” But while this year’s March Madness looks to be a boon for marketers and for WarnerMedia and Paramount, whose networks (TBS, TNT, truTV and CBS) are jointly broadcasting their 11th tournament, their respective streaming services don’t stand to benefit in the same way streamers have from other recent major sports events like the Super Bowl and Olympics. Instead, HBO Max and Paramount+ are largely sidelined during the tournament. Each network’s linear authenticated app will allow cable subscribers to stream those games. But HBO Max is not involved in the tournament, and only subscribers to Paramount+’s pricier $9.99 per month tier will have access to games on CBS via their local affiliate. Instead, users are pointed toward NCAA March Madness Live, which WarnerMedia runs in partnership with the NCAA and CBS Sports. The app is available on 18 mobile and connected TV devices. “I think our viewership both on the linear channels and on the digital channels continues to be really, really strong. We've said all along that we want the tournament to be available in any way that the fan wants to watch it,” said Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports. The companies see March Madness Live “as a hub for everything that is tournament-related," said Adam Schwartz, Horizon’s svp of video investment, sport. "They feel that they're getting in front of more eyeballs by having this app because people can get up to three hours free before they actually have to put in a cable provider [to authenticate].” March Madness Championships by the Numbers Turner Sports and CBS are optimistic about March Madness ratings this year after a decline in 2021. With the return of live audiences and top teams in the tournament, the companies are hoping for a ratings surge. 2021: 16.9 million, CBS2019: 19.6 million, CBS201`8: 16 million, Turner2017: 23 million, CBS2016: 17.8 million, Turner But that approach doesn’t help either company’s efforts to grow the subscriber bases for their respective streamers. Paramount+ now has 32.8 million subscribers and recently raised its subscriber target for the company’s entire direct-to-consumer portfolio to 100 million by the end of 2024. Including March Madness in the lower subscriber tier would likely have helped accelerate that trajectory. Meanwhile, HBO Max, which last reported 46.8 million domestic subscribers, has begun pushing into live sports as part of WarnerMedia’s deals to bring games to the platform with the NFL and the U.S. Soccer Federation. Turner Sports is instead directing users to the March Madness Live app. “Our platform today is MML, where you can watch every game,” said Lenny Daniels, president of Turner Sports. The lack of incorporating streaming services into the tournament is surprising, given the recent push from nearly every major streamer to add live sports. Amazon’s Prime Video snagged the exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football beginning this fall, while Apple TV+ struck a deal earlier this month with Major League Baseball for an exclusive Friday Night Baseball broadcast. However, Schwartz doesn't believe Turner and CBS are missing out; instead, he argues, companies are attracting viewers who don't want to pay for an additional service by utilizing the free March Madness app. "They're definitely happy," Schwartz said. "From an advertiser standpoint, I would say that the March Madness Live viewership continues to grow year after year after year; we haven't seen it plateau yet." Turner and CBS Sports say that because they sell linear and digital advertising inventories within the same package, they don’t have an incentive to point viewers one way or another. “Advertisers really don't pick and choose; we basically sell the linear and the digital package together,” said Jon Diament, evp and CRO of Turner Sports. “There's no cannibalization, and in fact, it's a true partnership between March Madness Live and linear products. From an advertiser perspective, 93% of the advertisers are on both platforms.”

Streaming & OTT

Paramount and WarnerMedia Sideline Their Streaming Strategies for March Madness

HBO Max and Paramount+ are taking a backseat to the NCAA's own tournament app

Mollie Cahillane

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Mollie Cahillane