Triangle Viewers See The Entire NCAA On WRAL

HD set owners aren't the only ones who will be seeing the 2001NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament in multi-casting this March. Triangle Time Warner Cable customers who have digital cable service will be able to watch all 64 games during March Madness as well.

Last year WRAL-TV made history when it multi-cast the NCAA tournament on its digital channel and sub-channel with feed from CBS. Rather than showing only the closest regional game, WRAL-TV took the signals from all four games CBS aired in regional markets. Viewers with HD sets picked up the feed to watch every game of the tournament, up to four games at one time. If play got slow in one game, viewers could flip the channel to find a closer scoring game.

With the advent of digital cable, viewers will be able to pick up the multi-cast feed on WRAL's channel 3 and digital channels 256, 257 and 258. Viewers with HD sets can see the games on WRAL's channel 53 and subchannels 53.2, 53.3 and 53.4. For a complete listing of game times and channel locations, check out WRAL OnLine. The multi-cast games will be shown in standard definition, but the Final Four and Championship games will be aired in HD.

The games began yesterday, March 15, at noon and will continue through Monday, April 2 with the final game in Minneapolis.

Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc. (MDEA) is sponsoring the High Definition coverage of the NCAA Final Four and Championship games for CBS Television. This Final Four HDTV programming will be broadcast in 1080i, the highest-definition television format.

WRAL is one of 37 CBS stations across the country broadcasting in digital.