Let’s take a peak, shall we, into what has come into the Sports Media Journal Inbox…

NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Ratings Continue to Soar- CBS and Turner have announced that ratings for this year’s joint coverage of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament are the highest in the last 6 years.  To date, the average rating of the entire tournament on the four networks is 6.0, up 11 percent from CBS’ coverage in 2010.

March Madness on Demand Seeing Maddening Numbers- Over the first two weeks of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, there were 41.6 million view visits to the March Madness on Demand website run by CBS, Turner Sports, and the NCAA.  That number is up an astonishing 60% in total visits.

Fox Sports Announces a College Game of the Week on FX Beginning this Fall- Fox has announced that it will produce a college football game of the week that will appear on FX beginning September 3rd.  The 13 game schedule will feature match-ups involving teams in the Big 12, Pac-12, and Conference USA.

ESPN to Launch Corporate Blog Site- Who needs SMJ to talk about ESPN when the WWL can do it itself?  ESPN has announced that it will launch a corporate blog site, ESPNFrontRow.com, beginning Wednesday, March 30th.  The blog will be update daily and will be managed by the organization’s Communications Department.  The site will provide readers with behind-the-scenes access as to what is happening at ESPN and will be run primarily by Sheldon Spencer, a 25-year sports jounralism veteran with stints at  National Sports Daily, the Seattle Post-Intellegencer, and San Jose Mercury News.

“The goal for ESPNFrontRow.com is to provide fans a window into ESPN,” said Mike Soltys, ESPN vice president, communications, U.S. networks.

ESPN’s Kenny Mayne has recorded a video on the launch of the blog.  View it here:

HBO’s Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel Returns Wednesday- The next edition of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel will air on HBO this Wednesday night beginning at 10:00pm ET.  The show will depart from its traditional format to focus on stories dedicated to the state of college sports in America.