• by Wayne Friedman , March 30, 2017

The 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has brought in slightly more in national TV advertising dollars through the early rounds leading up to the Final Four this weekend.

So far, it has pulled in $748.6 million for CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, according to iSpot.tv -- up 2% versus a year ago. There has been some 224 brands with 514 spots, airing 8,168 times.

The tournament recorded $736.2 million in ad revs in 2016.

AT&T is the big spender so far -- $31.4 million; Coca-Cola is at $26.0 million; Buick, $25.2 million; Capital One, $24.6 million; and Samsung Mobile, $23.5 million. A year ago, AT&T was also the big spender through this period -- $45.6 million. Buick was next, $27.8 million; Southwest Airlines, $22.4 million; Capital One, $22.4 million; and GEICO, $17.2 million.

The “March Madness” event has pulled in a Nielsen 9.8 million viewers on average through the “Elite 8” round -- 10% higher than a year ago, the third most-watched in 24 years.

Last weekend’s regional finals games on Saturday and Sunday had TBS and CBS up 11% to averaged 10.2 million viewers. Sunday’s big regional final game between North Carolina and Kentucky was 5% better than the same game a year ago -- at 15.5 million viewers.