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Television ratings for the first Thursday of the NCAA 2011 Division I Men’s Basketball Championship reached the highest level in the last 20 years.

The games broadcast TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV drew a 5.7 rating, which is the highest since the 1991 tournament.

The rating is an increase of 24 percent compared to the 2010 coverage that was shown exclusively on CBS. Turner Sports and CBS Sports combined to sign a 14-year, $10.8 billion media rights contract with the NCAA last April. 

Each of the four broadcast windows showed an increase over last year’s coverage.

The first broadcast window (noon-4:15 p.m. Eastern) was up 42 percent; the 3 p.m.-6:45 p.m. window was up 46 percent; 7 p.m.-9:45 p.m. increased by 8 percent; and 9:15 p.m.-12:30 a.m. rose 13 percent.

March Madness on Demand

NCAA March Madness on Demand, which provides live streaming of all 68 NCAA tournament games, also increased 22 percent on the first Thursday of the tournament.

In total, there were 7.6 million visits across online and mobile applications.

On Thursday, the NCAA March Madness on Demand app, which is free to users across all platforms, including on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch rose to the No. 1 spot in the App store.