March Madness is on. The top rated cable program for the 18-49 demo for the week of 3/14 – 3/20, according to Nielsen, was TBS’s NCAA basketball tournament game between the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles and the North Carolina Tar Heels on Thursday night, with 1.82 million average viewers Live+SD. Another game that made the top 10 list was TNT’s Wichita State versus Arizona on Thursday night, with 1.391 million average viewers Live+SD. Expect to see more games popping up in the top 10 rated programs this month.

Other usual suspects in the top 10 include the three showings of “WWE Raw” Monday night, with 1.722 million average viewers Live+SD, 1.591 million and 1.544 million. Super Tuesday last week on CNN also made the list, with the 8pm, 9pm and 10pm programs garnering 1.389 million, 1.548 million and 1.478 million, respectively. FX’s “American Crime Story” and “Family Guy” rounded out the top 10. See the full chart below, from Nielsen.

ratings nielsen 3/14

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Cable Tells FCC to Say No to Forced ATSC 3.0 Transition

Cable is pushing back against a broadcast proposal for a mandatory ATSC 3.0/NextGen TV transition, saying it would be costly and unwanted by consumers. NAB wants the FCC to require most stations to fully transition to ATSC 3.0 by February 2028.

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