truTV

Parsing the performance of the NCAA tournament this year, with three networks carrying games in addition to CBS, will be complicated. Ratings for CBS, the sole carrier of the games for years, were down versus 2010. But measured collectively, the four networks carrying March Madness saw big gains over last year. In fact, they delivered the biggest start to the tournament in 20 years. CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV averaged a collective 5.7 household rating for more than 12 hours of game coverage yesterday, up 24% from a 4.6 last year, when only CBS had the games.

As the NCAA basketball tournament gets into fall swing today, over-the-air viewers and some affiliates are uphappy  with the new TV schedule, in which games are appearing on TNT, TBS and TruTV for the first time as well as CBS. Affils are disappointed that they no longer can pick games with local interest. “I think all hell is going to break lose,” says Tom Griesdorn, GM at WBNS Columbus, Ohio, which will not be showing Ohio State game. “In years past, viewers would just go to channel 10. It’s going to be interesting.”

Commercial time during the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament is virtually gone, despite the complications introduced by showing games on four channels instead of one. March Madness, as the NCAA tournament is more commonly known, is nearly sold out of TV and digital inventory on CBS and Turner’s TNT, TBS and TruTV. That’s the earliest the event has sold so much inventory in recent memory.