It’s been just two days, but we’ve already had transcendent individual performances (hello, Jack Gohlke), massive upsets, overtime thrillers and statement-making blowouts as the 2024 NCAA Tournament field has been cut in half from 64 to 32 teams. In other words, it’s March Madness as we all know it.
As was the case in the first round, all of the games in second round, Sweet 16 and onwards will be televised on CBS, TBS, TNT or truTV. Fortunately, if you don’t have cable, there are a bevy of options for watching the Big Dance for free.
Is There a Free March Madness Live Stream?
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends
Though there isn’t a single streaming service that will get you all of the remaining games for free, there are some different ways to watch certain selections of games at no cost.
Both YouTube TV (“Base Plan”) and DirecTV Stream (“Entertainment” package or above) include all of the channels you need to watch every tournament game–CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV. They also both come with a free five-day trial.
That means that you could potentially sign up for YouTube TV to watch all of the Round of 32 games on Saturday and Sunday and then cancel your subscription before paying anything. Then, the following week, you can sign up for DirecTV Stream and watch the Sweet 16 (Thursday, Friday) and Elite 8 (Saturday, Sunday) and then cancel before your free trial runs out.
That just leaves the following weekend’s Final Four and national championship games, which can all be watched on Max for $10 (more on that option below).
If there happens to be one single matchup that you really don’t want to miss–perhaps Kansas vs Gonzaga or UNC vs Michigan State on Saturday–and you don’t really care about watching anything else, you can watch one game for free via the March Madness Live app/website. While this option actually has every game, you need to sign in to a cable provider to watch them all. If you don’t have that, though, you get three unrestricted hours before needing to sign in, giving you enough time to watch a single game at no cost.
Other Ways to Watch March Madness Live Stream for Cheap
Max / Max
If you don’t want to worry about the stress of free trials and timing when to sign up and cancel, the combination of Max (formerly HBO Max) and Paramount+ is the cheapest way to watch every game from the Round of 32 through the final.
Max is just $10 per month and will have a live stream of every truTV, TBS and TNT game, while Paramount+ with SHOWTIME is $12 per month and will get you access to every CBS game. You’ll need to cycle between two apps, but the rest of the tournament for just $22 is quite the value.
For another relatively inexpensive option, you can go with Sling TV‘s “Sling Orange” plus “Entertainment Extra” bundle, which is on sale for just $41 for your first month. This includes truTV, TBS and TNT and 35 other channels. It doesn’t have CBS, so you’ll need to combine it with the aforementioned Paramount+ option for those games, but even with both of those combined, it’s still much cheaper than any other live-TV streaming service that has all four of those channels.
How to Watch March Madness Live Stream from Abroad
Derek Malcolm / Digital Trends
If you want to access one of those streaming services from outside of the United States, a virtual private network (VPN) can hide your IP address and get you around any location-restrictions that stand in your way.
NordVPN is our recommendation. It doesn’t limit bandwidth speeds, it has over 2,000 servers in the United States and it has a dedicated Chrome extension, all things that make it one of the most reliable VPN’s for streaming sports on any service.
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