Keep pulling the thread on David Levy.
A key condition from Turner Broadcasting for its NCAA rights partnership with CBS was that it be a 50-50 partnership, including alternating rights to broadcast the Final Four and championship games.
The Turner/CBS partnership for March Madness, which began in 2011, introduced the strategy of broadcasting all tournament games live and simultaneously across four networks: TBS, TNT, truTV, and CBS.
The Turner/CBS NCAA partnership agreement pools all revenue streams, including digital and events, to be split 50-50, but excludes Turner's subscription revenue and CBS's retransmission fees.
The media rights partnership between Turner and CBS for the NCAA March Madness tournament extends until the year 2032.
Prior to its partnership with Turner Broadcasting around 2010, CBS was losing money on its broadcast rights for the NCAA March Madness tournament.
Turner Broadcasting's leadership believed in 2010 that the NCAA would not grant the full March Madness tournament rights exclusively to a cable network, which necessitated a partnership with a broadcast network.
During negotiations for the NCAA March Madness rights, Turner Broadcasting also held discussions with Fox as a potential partner.