The return of the NCAA basketball tournaments, popularly known as March Madness, has become a decisive catalyst for the television ecosystem this March. Live games and related programming have drawn massive audiences, reshaping the usual seasonal patterns of viewership.
Paramount’s March surge
Paramount led the pack, adding 1.1 percentage points to its market share and finishing with 8.1% of U.S. households tuned in. The growth was anchored in CBS’s lineup, where tournament games sat alongside hits such as Tracker and Marshals, drawing a broad audience.
Warner Bros. Discovery followed with its own lift, spurred by gains on CNN and HBO Max and the presence of March Madness on TBS, TNT and TruTV. The combined effect of sports coverage and news programming helped the company notch the largest viewing bump among distributors in March.
Cable’s overall share posted its highest level since October 2025, especially among the 18‑24 demographic, a segment that traditionally gravitates toward live sports. The Oscars also contributed, with ABC’s broadcast drawing more than 17 million viewers and Disney securing second place with a 10.5% share of total TV.
While total streaming minutes dipped 7% from February, the category still accounted for nearly half of all TV viewing. YouTube reclaimed the top distributor spot with 13.2% of March watch‑time, Netflix topped monthly streaming titles with its original series Bridgerton, and HBO Max’s The Pitt followed with 5.7 billion viewing minutes.
The Roku Channel captured the highest annual viewing increase of any distributor, notching a 27% uptick compared to March 2025, and NBCUniversal showed positive year‑over‑year trends, with Peacock up 19% year‑over‑year.