TV Viewers Guide For 2011 NCAA Tournament - Must Read

[CDC84]

Lots of good details about how the TV coverage will be different this year:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/richard_deitsch/03/10/viewers.guide.march.madness/index.html?eref=sihp

A couple of key items:

CBS always had live look-ins at other games and also switched live to buzzer beaters. Will that happen this year?Not nearly as much. Explained McManus: "Say the viewer is watching CBS and it's a 25-point blowout. He might say to themselves, 'What is CBS doing? Why are they sticking to this game?' Well, in the past, when it got to 15 points or so, we would protect the local markets and switch to another game. Now there is no switching other games in this scenario. There are four national broadcasts. Once the viewer gets used to it, I think he will like it and play the role CBS used to play. The clicker is in his hands and he does not have to rely on some CBS executive. He will switch himself. We have empowered viewers."

OK, so what happens if I'm watching a blowout? Here's one of the remarkable things of the partnership. CBS and Turner executives say viewers will be informed repeatedly by game announcers (as well as a scoreboard on the top of the screen) when a tight game is taking place on another network. "Sending somebody to another television network while the game is on yours is something that is unheard of," said Turner Sports president David Levy. "It will take some getting used to for the television audience."

[thespywhozaggedme]

Basically every game is on everywhere all of the time. It's no more complicated than that.

[rawkmandale]

What the hell is TruTV and who carries that? They have 4 of the 16 games on Thursday and also on Friday.

Obviously, CBS, TNT, and TBS are not a problem for most of us.

[Section 116]

TruTv is Comcast Channel 49 and used to be called Court TV.

[Jedster]

Saw we play 6:45 PM PST on CBS Sportsline. Awesome!!

[rawkmandale]

I guess that means the first game would be TNT.

[Zagdawg]

Outstanding--I won't need to leave work early!

[rawkmandale]

Jedster, I don't know what part of the site you saw that on? I can't find times for the Thursday and Friday games.

[Lurknomore]

It is rolling on the bottom of ESPN2 now...I can't read it to confirm the time tho. Need my contacts.

[KStyles]

Jedster, I don't know what part of the site you saw that on? I can't find times for the Thursday and Friday games.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/scoreboard/ncaa-tournament/20110317

6:45 PDT.

Looks like a CBS game according to ESPNs website.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/scoreboard?date=20110317

[Lurknomore]

Thank you, that is correct 6:45PM.

[rawkmandale]

The SI article in the first post on the thread says TNT has the 9:45 (eastern) game. But, I wouldn't be surprised if CBS wanted the Gonzaga/St. John's game.

[Rangerzag]

Here:

http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/2011-03-08/men%E2%80%99s-march-madness-tv-schedule

The 6:45 PDT game is on TNT

[rawkmandale]

Well, the CBS site shows slightly different (probably newer) start times than the SI article, so probably more up-to-date. Nice start time. The Michigan State/UCLA game will probably have the biggest audience, but ours should do well, too.

[KStyles]

The actual game times posted on CBSSportsline don't match up with the SI article's game times.

If you look at it, SI says that the second game starting in the last time frame of the night is a CBS game, and the GU game would be the second game starting in that time frame. I guess we'll have to see.