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On Tuesday afternoon, CBS Sports and Turner Sports announced an agreement with the NCAA to extend their rights deal for the NCAA Tournament through the year 2032. The announcement, via a press release, entails that the continued over-the-top broadcasts of the annual March extravaganza are set to continue for at least the next 16 years, and from the looks of it, there is a lot to like.
With the contract extension, viewers of the NCAA Tournament will continue to be able to watch each game from star tto finish across the four networks utilized by CBS and Turner Sports. These include CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, so you should expect to continue to be looking for the aforementioned truTV when each March rolls around. Per the release, the continued alternation between CBS and TBS for the Final Four and National Championship is set to continue. This may sour some, but Turner Sports has to vouch for and obtain something in this continued partnership, and it's easy to see why they would want the biggest event of 'em all.
In general, everything appears to be staying... in the status quo. That's a victory in itself. Often times we see things that aren't broken and attempted to be fixed.
Oh, right.
The Selection Show. Everyone made a gigantic - and perhaps necessary fuss about the catastrophe that ensued on one of the most anticipated days of the sports calendar year. The way it was structured was bizarre and not what I expected nor what many did either, evidently. One would have imagined that they would have produced it so that all the teams would be announced, and then, analysis would ensue. Instead, they dragged it out far too long and CBS, Turner, and the NCAA got their worst nightmare when the full bracket was leaked online before everything was fully announced.
Per media news ace Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated, it does not appear that's going to happen again:
March Madness will stay on CBS and Turner through 2032. Expect changes to Selection Show next year: https://t.co/CAyN64OcFn
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) April 12, 2016
Sean McManus of CBS Sports had this to say to Sports Illustrated, which should have everyone at ease:
On the topic of the much-criticized CBS Selection Show, which delayed the complete brackets until 77 minutes into the show (the entire show had been just an hour in previous years), McManus said, "We haven’t had any specific discussions but I think we all agree it would serve all of us well including the fan to release the brackets in a little more timely manner."
So all in all, winners are all across the board. CBS and Turner get to continue their terrific and dynamic partnership until the early 2030s, at least. The viewers win, as they'll be able to still watch every tournament game from end to end, bell to bell and start to finish, however you want to phrase it. It's amazing to think that as recently as 2010, this option wasn't available to everyone. Crazy, even. And with the aforementioned changes that have been alluded to, CBS' gaffe with this past year's Selection Show should prove to be nothing but an anomaly.