ARLINGTON, Va.—Thursday marks the tip-off of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, more commonly known as March Madness. The first days of the tournament are a seemingly never-ending stream of buzzer beaters and upsets with fans sitting back and enjoying it all.
One key piece of that enjoyment though is the way in which people watch the games. Recent reports from the Consumer Technology Association indicate that people are upgrading their viewing experience with the latest models of TV sets offering bigger and better pictures.
In its 2019 Sales & Forecast report from January, CTA estimated that more than three-quarters of LCD TV shipments in 2019 will be for sets 40-inches or larger; TVs 65-inches and larger will account for about 18 percent. As for high-resolution technology, 4K TVs are expected to make up half of all TV sales—which is fitting with some of the tournament games being broadcast in 4K this year on DirecTV—while an estimated 1.35 million OLED TVs will be sold this year.
Cord-cutting continues to be a trend amongst consumers, but that doesn’t mean they want to miss any of the tournament action. Consumers are projected to spend up to $18.2 billion on live TV streaming packages, as many of those services have begun to offer packages that include live sports. For last year’s tournament, the NCAA reported a 28 percent increase of streams of the tournament and a 14 percent increase in hours watched.
Plus, March Madness is a great time to get TV deals.
The NCAA Tournament beings Thursday, March 21, and runs through April 8.
