The longer days and that feeling of spring in the air typically mean it’s time for sports fans to turn their attention to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) March Madness. Games kicked off March 14 and will conclude with the crowning of the national champions of college basketball on April 3.

CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery sold out most of their ad inventory earlier this month, with only a few units remaining for the regional semi-finals, known as the Sweet 16 broadcasts. “The first weekend is very tight, the second weekend has some more avails left, but the Final Four weekend is basically sold out,” said John Bogusz, EVP of CBS Sports Sales at Paramount Advertising. “The sports marketplace continues to hold up extremely well in the current economic environment.” Sportico reports that ad units for the championship games set sales records between $2.2 and $2.3 million per spot, while 30-second units for earlier events went for several hundred-thousand dollars a pop. Those figures beat last year’s record of $1 billion in ad sales and marked nearly double-digit price hikes compared to 2022, according to CBS and Turner Sports networks.

Research from Effectv media group, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, shows that roughly 65% of US homes tuned into the games in 2022, with an average of 9.25 hours of viewing time per household. What’s more, March Madness ads reach more than double the homes with each commercial compared to average TV programs. Here are a few more points worth noting:

• Advertisers who included these games in their campaigns saw 87% greater reach than those who didn’t explore March Madness initiatives.
• Streaming rates for networks airing the games increased 86% during the tournament.
• Two out of three businesses (67%) watch the games during the first two rounds.
• 41% of spectators watch with another person.

Part of what makes March Madness programming so effective is that it’s 55% more likely to be seen by “light TV viewing” households, which are a notoriously hard-to-target consumer group. “With March Madness, advertisers are reaching viewers who would not otherwise be seeing TV advertising,” said Travis Flood, executive director of insights at Comcast. “Incremental reach is on everyone’s mind in 2023, and this event provides an opportunity to reach audiences more than twice as efficiently as an average ad.”Brands are joining the action with a variety of activations. ESPN encouraged fans filling out their March Madness brackets to “Go With Your Gut” in a trio of funny 15-second spots running across broadcast, streaming, digital, audio and social channels. General Motors’ Buick brand continued its 2022 “See Her Greatness” campaign with ads starring female college basketball players that will run during the women’s NCAA games, across ESPN channels and on ABC. And Coke Zero Sugar featured two basketball greats—Tamika Catchings and Magic Johnson—in 30-second spots set to run throughout the tournament. “Sports is still the best way to get mass reach on television, and the sports audiences are still stronger than anything else on TV,” said one media buyer.