2013: A LOOK BACK IN SPORTS - PART 5 - NCAA BASKETBALL

Continuing last week's coverage, I take a look this week at Nielsen's data on sports fans in 2013 focusing on the latest findings on NCAA basketball.  You can read the full-summarized report here: http://bit.ly/1fT9KVa.  I've read through it and here are some of the most interesting facts from the past year:

 

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There’s nothing quite like the excitement and fan participation that surrounds March Madness.  Perhaps it’s the office pools and bracket-ready eagerness that has the viewing audience changing, but the NCAA Tournament’s viewership definitely evolves from the NCAA regular season.  With a 14% hike in female viewers and a 4% hike in households with an income of $100K or more, the sport invites in a new demographic at the start of the tournament.   It’s not only the audience that changes, but rather social media becomes abuzz with a significant number of ravenous, content generating, March Madness fans.  The significant amount of Twitter activity in the 2013 Championship Game between Michigan and Louisville ranked it as the most tweeted about telecast in the month of April.  Here’s the latest and greatest on NCAA basketball thru a look back on 2013.

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·      NCAA Basketball regular reason viewership took a small loss for the 2012-2013 season with a .2% decrease, however the championship game saw quite the growth in viewership with a 12.3% year to year gain.

·      Top NCAA Basketball advertiser: AT&T Wireless

·      Adults who visit NCAA.com are 59% more likely than the average U.S. adult to have purchased sporting goods in the last six months.

·      The average NCAA Tournament viewer is a likely to be a white male aged 55+ who makes $40,000-$75,000 annually.  However, the next largest income group, those making 100K or more a year, is very close behind.

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·      With some of the strongholds in college basketball resting comfortably in its conference, including the likes of North Carolina and Duke, the ACC has long been thought of as the most popular conference.  But in the 2012-13 regular season the Big 10 topped the rankings in TV viewership with more fans tuning in to see Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State play.

·      On average, three million viewers tuned in for the top 10 nationally televised regular season games involving a team from the Big 10 conference.

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·      The top two local fan bases determined by percentages of their population having watched, attended, or listened to the team in the past 12 month, came in at over 50% of the population devoted.  But while the Louisville Cardinals put up strong numbers with 58% of their population showing their support for the team, they'll have to relish in the number two spot.  

·      The Cardinals' local fan base is no match for the number one Kentucky Wildcats, where a whopping 67% of their population is faithful to the organization.