NCAA Selection Show viewership drop a signal to CBS

The NCAA Selection Show viewership, normally a bastion of strong ratings numbers on which broadcasting giant CBS depends annually, experienced a nearly seven percent drop in 2017.

The NCAA Selection Show viewership number was still strong, easily outperforming the other competition on Sunday despite the drop.

The loss of 363,000 viewers is the opposite of what CBS would like to see, especially from an event so closely tied to March Madness. There is one big reason that can explain this viewership drop:

The 2016 Bracket Leak

Members of generations which grew up getting all their information from television are getting older. A bigger piece of the potential television audience are becoming more accustomed to getting that same information from other sources, like the internet or social media.

Last year’s leak of the NCAA men’s basketball championship tournament bracket two hours before CBS’ selection show proved that people are becoming more apt to look at sources other than television to get the information they want, even to the point of violating CBS’ exclusive rights deal with the NCAA for the bracket. The legitimacy of the leaked bracket only acted to further divert people away from television as the primary or solitary source of information.

The fact that the show lost another seven percent in average number of viewers this year when there was no leak should be taken as stronger evidence that fewer people are content with waiting for the selection show to get the brackets.

While that’s the main reason why the viewership was down, the message sent to CBS and the NCAA is that how they release this information to the general public needs to change with the times.

How CBS should release the bracket

What would be best is if CBS and the NCAA take a page from Apple, and control the “leaks” instead of acting to prevent them.

CBS could release the bracket on its web site and social media channels hours before the show, and thus still be the go-to-source for younger generations looking for the bracket. The traffic to its site and social media channels would still represent a boost for CBS’ properties. That doesn’t mean that it would have to nix the selection show, either.

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With the bracket already released, CBS would be free to spend additional time on coach and selection committee interviews, along with incorporating more video of team reactions to their seeding.

The result is that both platforms, the Internet and television, could deliver to the audience more of what each platform is best designed for. It’s a win-win for CBS and its audience.