It’s become as much an annual tradition as making up a bracket: cracking wise as to where on your cable lineup TruTV is. True (sorry), the little-watched, Turner-owned, formerly CourtTV its the butt of many a joke this time of year. However, the move continues to pay ratings dividends for the channel, and grow from year-to-year.
Tuesday night’s doubleheader, which featured a fairly juicy North Carolina State-Xavier matchup as well as Albany-Mt. Saint Mary’s, averaged an 0.9 rating for TruTV. That was up 13 percent from the comparable doubleheader in 2013. Neither of the games on the opening night in 2013 featured a team from a “power” conference.
The second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader did, however, and it worked. NC State’s victory over Xavier drew a 1.2 rating, the highest ever for a First Four game on TruTV. The game peaked with a 1.3 rating from 9:45-10 p.m. ET.
What does this mean? Well, if you put an appealing matchup in that First Four bracket, people will have little trouble finding TruTV. Considering the network is the home of many NCAA Tournament games, this really shouldn’t be a problem anymore. Old habits die hard, however.
