Broadcast and streaming rights to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament — the annual event widely known as March Madness — passed to the newly established Skydance media company, with that arrangement covering the 2027 edition and running through the close of the contracted period in 2032. The Paramount–Warner Bros. deal had already been finalised before this newer development unfolded.

The arrangement brought together two parties that had long shared broadcast entitlements — CBS Sports, operating under the Paramount umbrella, alongside TNT Sports on the Warner Bros. side. Both the Discovery side and the network it joined came under the roof of one shared parent company.

Under the deal stretching to 2032, the tournament draws roughly $1.1 billion each year in broadcasting and rights payments from the parties involved. A 16-year arrangement covering both production and distribution — one that took root at the 2011 tournament — draws to a close with this change.

Matchups were distributed among four broadcast outlets — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV — with every game carried nationally and accessible through the streaming services tied to those respective partners. During the opening rounds, action spread across several broadcast outlets at once, whereas the Final Four and the title game rotated between CBS and TBS depending on whether the year carried an even or odd number.

Under a framework tracing back to a 2010 deal — initially structured at $10.8 billion across 14 years, then extended by a further eight years at an additional $8.8 billion — the two broadcasters pooled production expenses, advertising inventory, studio output, and digital operations, with the arrangement also guaranteeing that no game would be withheld from viewers due to regional restrictions.

Sole broadcast control over the men's NCAA tournament rested with CBS for a continuous stretch running from 1991 to 2010, marking the most recent period any single network held that arrangement without a partner. Broadcasting rights to the tournament — including the Final Four — moved to CBS in 1982 after the network put forward a higher bid than NBC, which had held the contract through the preceding years.

Between 1982 and 1990, CBS split early-round broadcasting rights with ESPN, before taking on full responsibility for the tournament's entire television package once the 1991 edition got underway. A clause allowing the NCAA to exit the arrangement was invoked after the 2010 championship, opening the door to fresh negotiations that brought CBS and Turner Broadcasting System on board as joint rights holders beginning the next year.

Scattered syndication arrangements had carried the property through the years leading up to NBC's decision, toward the close of the 1960s, to take on a limited run of national broadcasts.

Following the Skydance restructuring, a consolidated portfolio of top-tier sports rights — assets that had previously sat under separate ownership at Paramount and Warner Bros. — now falls within a single company's remit. The result became available through the investigative process.

Among those deals are broadcast arrangements tied to the NFL, MLB, NHL, various college conferences, and additional properties — a portfolio that places Skydance among the country's foremost holders of live sports media rights. With regard to the college basketball tournament, having a single ownership structure across the combined networks and platforms removes friction from broadcast planning, ad inventory management, and how content reaches viewers through streaming.

Broadcast rights for 2026 remain split between CBS and TNT Sports under the existing deal, whereas organisational control over 2027 and all subsequent editions will fall to a unified body.

Bracket expansion for both the men's and women's tournaments — set to take effect in 2027 — unlocks added broadcasting and rights revenue within the framework of deals the NCAA already holds. Leadership of the sports division at Skydance — personnel whose backgrounds trace back to the former CBS Sports operation — has taken charge of the merged catalogue of properties.

Antitrust objections raised by a coalition of states and the Writers Guild of America were put to rest through negotiated settlements, clearing the path for the deal to formally conclude on October 6. Approvals from regulators spanning dozens of countries removed the remaining obstacles to uniting the studios, streaming platforms, broadcast networks, and sports rights holdings involved in the deal.

Starting in 2027, viewers across the country will be able to watch every tournament game through a single broadcaster that absorbed what had previously been a shared arrangement between two separate media entities. The arrangement places sole broadcast authority over March Madness in the hands of one company for the first time since CBS held that position before 2011, bringing to a close a partnership structure that had governed tournament television rights across roughly fifteen years.

When the current arrangement wraps up after the 2032 tournament, the merged entity's position in the marketplace may carry weight in how broadcasters and rights holders approach the next round of talks — a period when the pull between traditional television, streaming platforms, and digital audiences is only expected to deepen.