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How to watch March Madness 2024: The best streaming options

To some people, it's spring. To others, it's March Madness, and the time of year when everything is about the college basketball championship. Here's how you can stream all your favorite team's games.
Paramount+
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The Super Bowl is the United States' most popular sporting event by a wide margin, but many Americans also love March Madness, college basketball's championship series.

According to one study, 33% of Americans watch March Madness annually. On average, these fans watch six games. The American Gaming Association estimates that $2.72 billion will be betting on the 2024 men's and women's tournaments.

Even if you had a jet plane and a field of 68 teams playing in 14 different arenas and stadiums, you wouldn't be able to see all the games in person. Fortunately, you don't have to try. The games will be shown on: CBS, 21 games; TBS, 21 games; TNT, 12 games; and truTV, 13 games, over various streaming networks. The Final Four and the national championship game will be shown on TBS.

The women's tournament will air on ESPN's networks, and a few games will be shown on ABC. While ESPN will air the women's Final Four, ABC will broadcast the title game.

March Madness: The basics

  • March Madness begins on March 19, with the men's First Four on truTV and the women's First Four on March 20 on ESPN2. 
  • CBS, TNT, TBS, and truTV will air the men's tournament. You'll find the women's tournament on ESPN channels.
  • You can watch some of the CBS games over the air (OTA). But to follow most games, you must have satellite, cable, or streaming TV.
  • If you follow several teams, you'll also need DVR services as it's a lead-pipe cinch that two or more of your teams will play simultaneously.

Where to stream March Madness games

Pros & Cons
Pros
  • Inexpensive
Cons
  • Only offers CBS games
More Details

With Paramount+, you can watch some, but not all, of March Madness. This streaming service only offers the CBS games. For some reason -- and I really don't get this -- you'll only be able to watch games with the Paramount+ with SHOWTIME plan.

The Paramount+ with SHOWTIME plan costs $11.99 per month or $119.99 per year. You'll also need to pay any applicable taxes. This is an ad-free offering, but you'll still be stuck with commercials because the games are shown live.

You also won't be able to skip those ads. Paramount+ doesn't have a cloud DVR service, so you'll need to watch the games in real time. At least when the games are available from the broadcaster, they'll be in HD and 60 frames per second.

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Pros & Cons
Pros
  • Inexpensive
Cons
  • Only offers the Turner network games
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Max, which will always be HBO Max to me, is -- surprisingly enough -- a decent choice for watching the men's tournament. Max allows you to watch the games on TNT, TBS, and truTV via its free B/R sports add-on.

For March Madness, Max is offering 40% off all three of its plans if you pay for a year up front, whether you're a new, existing, or returning customer. That will drop the plan with ads to $70 for the year (compared to the typical $100), the ad-free plan to $105 (from $150), and the Ultimate ad-free with 4K plan to $140 (from $200). (Of course, for the March Madness games, you're stuck with commercials regardless.)

With the first two plans, you can stream to two devices simultaneously. With the 4K service, you can stream to four devices simultaneously.

Pros & Cons
Pros
  • Great DVR
Cons
  • Pricier
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Hulu with Live TV's combination of on-demand video and live TV is nice, and it also comes with Disney+ and ESPN+ bundled. For $83 per month, you'll get your local CBS channel, TBS, TNT, and truTV. With the ESPN+ bundle, you can get all of the 2023 March Madness games.

Also: The best live TV streaming services: Watch sports and news without cable

Another plus is you'll be able to store an unlimited number of videos in your cloud DVR archive for up to nine months.

Pros & Cons
Pros
  • Excellent DVR and great multi-device support
Cons
  • Expensive
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DirecTV Stream has undergone several name changes. In the past, it was AT&T TV, AT&T TV Now, and DirecTV Now. Whatever you call it, you'll get CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV on even its cheapest level, the $79.99 Entertainment package.

This package includes ESPN and ESPN2 for the women's games. But if your favorite team isn't one of the top teams, its games may be on ESPNU or ESPNews and you'll need to upgrade to the $108.99 DirecTV Stream Choice package.

Also: The 5 best sports streaming services

DIRECTV upscales some sports events to 4K. You can manually adjust the content to "Best", "Better", or "Good" across devices. I don't recommend this approach. When I tried it, I saw streaming slowdowns and odd video artifacts.

The good news is that DirecTV Stream now comes with generous unlimited Cloud DVR storage. You can watch the game or any other show on up to 20 streaming devices at home simultaneously. Away from home, you can share your stream with three other devices. The video will be in HD.

Pros & Cons
Pros
  • Inexpensive
Cons
  • Choosing the right mix of services can be complicated
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Sling TV's à la carte approach to channels separates it from competitors. I like being able to pick and choose channels, but I know some people find it more confusing than useful.

While the other services tend to offer only two to four packages, Sling TV offers two basic packages -- Blue and Orange -- and a wide variety of packages bundling up to a dozen related channels. However, CBS isn't in any of them. You'll need an antenna for your local CBS channel or a Paramount+ subscription for those games.

Also: How to use your iPhone as a TV remote

Sling TV's $40-a-month Blue plan includes TBS, TNT, and truTV. If you want the main ESPN channels and the women's tournament, you'll need Sling TV's Orange plan, which costs $40 monthly. Combined, Sling Orange and Blue will cost you $55 a month. You can use this combo to watch games on TBS, TNT, truTV, and the main ESPN channels. You'll need the Sports Extra package for $11 monthly to watch the less well-known ESPN channels.

Sling TV's default cloud DVR offers 50 hours for free. If you need more -- and who doesn't? -- you can upgrade to 200 hours for $5 a month. The video is shown in 720p HDTV. With a Sling Orange plan, you can only watch a single stream. But, if you have a Sling Blue plan, you can watch shows on three devices simultaneously. The combined package means you can stream your shows on up to four devices. 

Pros & Cons
Pros
  • Excellent DVR
Cons
  • The ever-increasing price
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With over 100 channels, YouTube TV offers more popular channels than its competitors. YouTube TV costs $72.99 per month, and includes all the relevant ESPN channels, CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV. 

By CNET's count, out of the top 100 live TV networks, YouTube TV offers the most, 77,  of any streaming service. YouTubeTV's DVR is also outstanding. With it, you can record as many shows as you like. The only restriction is that they'll disappear after nine months. I can live with that. I'm sure you can, too. 

Also: Did your TV streaming bill just go up again? Here's why I chose YouTube TV

With YouTube TV's base plan, you can stream content to three devices simultaneously. For an additional $19.99 per month, the 4K Plus add-on plan gives you both unlimited streams at home and, when available, 4K video. 

YouTubeTV has unlimited cloud storage and you get six accounts to share with your household.

Pros & Cons
Pros
  • Other sports coverage
Cons
  • Not the right service for March Madness
More Details

FuboTV is all about sports. But sadly, it's not a great choice for March Madness. That's because while its starter plan, FuboTV Pro, has over 100 channels and 1,000 hours of cloud DVR storage for $80 per month, it doesn't offer TBS, TNT, and truTV. It only includes ABC, CBS, and the main ESPN channels.

For NCAA Women March Madness watchers, to catch every game, you'll need to get the Fubo Elite package, which includes ESPNews and ESPNU, for $85 per month.

What is March Madness?

March Madness is the Men's and Women's NCAA Division I Basketball Tournaments that run from mid-March to early April every year. Both tournaments are single-elimination tournaments with 68 teams competing in seven rounds.

What is the March Madness 2024 schedule?

Men's Tournament:

  • Selection Sunday: Sunday, March 17

  • First Four: March 19 and March 20

  • First round: March 21 and March 22

  • Second round: March 23 and March 24

  • Sweet 16: March 28 and March 29

  • Elite Eight: March 30 and March 31

  • Final Four: Saturday, April 6, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona

  • NCAA championship game: Monday, April 8, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona

Women's Tournament:

  • Selection Sunday: March 17

  • First Four: March 20 and March 21

  • First round: March 22 and March 23

  • Second round: March 24 and March 25

  • Sweet 16: March 29 and March 30

  • Elite Eight: March 31 and April 1

  • Final Four: Friday, April 5, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio

  • NCAA championship game: Sunday, April 7, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio

Can I stream the game from outside the US with a VPN?

If you're in Canada, you're in luck. TSN will be carrying all the NCAA men's and women's games. In the UK, Sky Sports has the rights to the games but hasn't announced its schedule, so I guess you'll see much more football, and not the US kind, than college basketball in the UK this year.

Also: The best VPN services

Many of you will need a virtual private network (VPN) to stream the game from your US streaming service. For travelers, ZDNET recommends ExpressVPN, NordVPN, or SurfShark VPN.

Can I stream March Madness for free?

Not really. If you go to the NCAA's March Madness Live site or use its March Madness Live app, you can watch games for free -- if you're already a paid TV subscriber. If you're not, you can still get a three-hour preview with ads. That option means you might be able to watch one whole game.

What is the cheapest way to stream the games?

The least expensive option to watch the men's tournament is to subscribe to Paramount+ with SHOWTIME and Max. Altogether, that option will cost you $21.98 to watch all of March Madness 2024.

The least expensive option to watch the women's tournament, you'll want Sling TV's Orange, for $40 per month, plus the Sports Extra package for the obscure ESPN channels, for $11 per month. These bring your total cost to $51.

Also: We found the best budget TVs

Of course, almost all the streaming networks offer cheaper deals for the first month or three of service. Even so, the packages above will still be cheaper than those introductory offers.

Will the March Madness games be in 4K?

No. Maybe next year.

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