March Madness is still distributed across traditional broadcast and pay TV but it seems lots of viewers are opting to stream the action this year.
According to Conviva, the opening round of the 2021 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament set a new record and racked up more than one billion minutes streamed across 32 games and two days.
Conviva also reported that big screens are claiming more of the streaming time during the tournament, likely due to the continued proliferation of connected TV platforms like Roku, Amazon and Google. The research company said televisions increased to 68% share of time spent streaming in round one and that Roku captured 40% share of the category.
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Roku said that on its platform, comparing 2019 to 2021, household reach of TV streaming channels carrying the first rounds of NCAA Tournament games during the games increased by 85% and that hours streamed grew by 74%. The company also said that more than 1 in 5 (22.6%) of 2019 traditional linear TV viewers of the first rounds streamed a channel carrying the 2021 tournament during time of gameplay, and 61% of 2019 traditional linear TV viewers did not return for 2021.
Roku’s data also suggested that younger and more affluent viewers are attracted to streaming March Madness. The company said that 54% of streaming households contain someone 18-34 and that 82% contain someone 18-49. In addition, Roku suggested that streamers of the games were more affluent than traditional linear TV viewers and 12% more likely to have a household income of more than $100,000.
Roku’s data also suggested that linear TV reach for the games declined 24% among people 18 and over.