March Madness 2024: How to Watch the NCAA Tournament Online Without Cable
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March Madness is officially underway with the women’s and men’s basketball Final Four games tipping of this weekend.
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The action kicked off on Friday night which saw South Carolina cruise past N.C. State into the national championship game. Afterwards, Iowa vs. Connecticut featured the highly anticipated matchup between Caitlin Clark and Paige Buekers (Clark’s Iowa, unsurprisingly, took home the win).
Tonight, eyes will be on the men’s teams in Glendale, Ariz. Purdue takes on N.C. State at 6:09 p.m., followed by defending champ Connecticut and Alabama. For the championship games, the women will play on Sunday and the men meet on Monday.
While there’s still time to buy tickets to see the NCAA Championship games in person on sites such as Stubhub, VividSeats and SeatGeek, there are plenty of ways to watch the games from home. Men’s games will broadcast on CBS and Turner, while Women’s games will air on ESPN. This means that whether you’re watching on cable or online, you’ll need access to CBS, ESPN, TBS, TNT and TruTV in order to catch all the matches.
Cable-cutters can access these networks on a variety of Live TV streamers such as DirecTV Stream, Sling TV, Fubo TV and Hulu + Live TV.
Below, check out the best ways to stream March Madness 2024:
DirecTV Stream
With DirecTV’s basic entertainment package, you’ll get access to CBS and ESPN to catch both Men’s and Women’s Selection Sunday events, in addition to select matches throughout the rest of the 2023-24 postseason. Looking ahead to the fall, diehard basketball fans may be interested in the streamer’s NBA TV add-on for an additional $15 dollars, which gets you extra analysis of games and players, in addition to their archive of every single Finals matchup game over the last 20 years.
Sling TV
Sling TV is the best option for those most interested in Men’s College Basketball. The streamer will broadcast 43 of the 67 games on their service, including the semifinals and the national championships. For just $40 a month (and half off your first month), you’ll have access to ESPN, TBS, and TNT through Sling Orange. To be able to catch every single game, you’ll want to subscribe to Sling Orange & Blue, which includes TruTV.
$20 (first month) $40 50% off
FuboTV
FuboTV is the most expensive option available at $64.99, but it does offer a seven-day free trial for those looking to catch at least some of the games at no cost. The platform has both ESPN and CBS, meaning you’ll get a majority of coverage for both the Men’s and Women’s tournaments. In general, the trial is an effective way to try out their more than 250 channels, such as ABC, NBC and Fox.
Hulu + Live TV
Hulu’s Live TV plan is one of the best ways to watch college basketball. The live TV streamer has TBS, TNT, TruTV and CBS in most cities so you can tune into every single match in both the women’s and men’s tournaments. Plus, Hulu boasts Unlimited DVR at no additional cost so you can record games to watch later. A subscription to Hulu + Live TV also gets you access to Hulu’s full streaming library – a $7.99/month value – with thousands of shows and movies. The best deal for Hulu + Live TV is through the Disney Bundle, which wraps in ESPN+ and Disney for a total of $76.99/Month.
Paramount+
Because the television rights for March Madness are held jointly between CBS Sports (owned by Paramount Global) and Turner Broadcasting (Warner Bros. Discovery), Paramount+ is another leading destination for streaming the NCAA tournament live online. You can catch every game of the men’s tournament on CBS Live through the Paramount+ with Showtime plan.
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