Louisville market dominates the NCAA

Hat tip to the Courier-Journal's Eric Crawford on this tidbit.

For fans of NCAA basketball, it has been an upset-filled March. But there are no surprises in household viewing patterns among the top markets tracked by Nielsen. More than a quarter of households in the Louisville, Ky., market tuned in to watch the University of Kentucky beat Cornell on March 25. The Louisville market is once again the highest-rated DMA for NCAA Tournament games, averaging a 16.6 household rating through the first two rounds.

While Louisville is a mid-sized market, with no pro sports teams, it dominates NCAA viewership and is at the heart of a "basketball belt," an enthusiastic cluster of markets from Raleigh to Oklahoma City that boast 9 of the top 10 DMAs in tournament viewing.