Broadcast Information
Originally, CBS Sports was to have shown all 63 games of the tournament following the opening round, which was on ESPN. However, because of the start of the Iraq war, CBS moved its telecasts of the games played on the first Thursday afternoon of the tournament to ESPN, opting to join other broadcast and non-broadcast outlets in showing extended news coverage.
By Thursday night, coverage had returned to CBS, albeit with frequent news updates. To make up for lost advertising revenue, an additional time slot was opened the following Sunday evening for more CBS telecasts.
Also, Mega March Madness was launched as an exclusive feature on DirecTV. This allowed for additional game broadcasts of the first three rounds other than those assigned to a viewer's home market.
Westwood One had exclusive national radio coverage.
Read more about this topic: 2003 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
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