The first full-day of action for the March Madness Basketball Tournament Thursday garnered sky-high ratings for CBS Corporation CBS and Time Warner Inc TWX's Turner Broadcasting.
Nielsen estimates show ratings rose 10 percent from a year ago, according to multiple reports on how the event fared with media companies.
The NCAA inked a $10.8 billion deal with the two companies in 2010, providing media rights to the event through 2024.
Neither company breaks out profit from the event, televised on CBS, and on Turner's TNT, TBS and TruTV.
For a first full day, ratings for Thursday's games were the "best ever," according to a report by the trade publication Variety.
Ratings may have been helped by five games decided by a single point, including Purdue versus Cincinnati and LSU versus North Carolina State.
CBS and Turner recently launched a redesign of their March Madness Live app that provides pay-television subscribers with unlimited live streaming coverage of the tournament's 67 games via Internet devices.
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