Harris Corp. has sponsored CBS Sports' high-definition television coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship tournament for the third year in a row.
Harris also supplies video compression and networking products to the CBS Television Network, including the Harris FlexiCoder, NetPlus and NetVX, that provides compression and distribution of the HDTV programming, as well as digital television transmitters that delivers the final programming viewers.
The companies said this is the first year all 63 games of the 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament are in HD. The tournament began March 15 with the first round of play and will conclude with the National Championship Game on April 2 in Atlanta. Previously, all 12 games from the four regional sites aired in HD, as well as the two national semi-final games and the championship.
"We are pleased to have Harris as our HD college basketball and March Madness partner for a third consecutive year as together we bring college basketball coverage to viewers in vivid HD, and we reaffirm CBS' leadership in HD sports broadcasting," said Martin D. Franks, executive vice president of Planning, Policy and Government Relations at CBS Corp.
The telecasts, being presented live by CBS Sports, are "unified" productions produced in 1080i and downconverted for the network's analog broadcast coverage. All high-definition games are broadcast in 5.1 surround sound.
