What’s the Cheapest Way to Watch the 2024 March Madness?
Fans can stream each and every March Madness game in 2024 for less than $55 per month with a combination of Sling TV and Paramount+.
It’s never been easier to watch March Madness without cable. The 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament starts on Tuesday, March 19 with the First Four, and will continue through Monday, April 8 when a national champion is crowned, while the women’s tournament kicks off on Wednesday, March 20 and runs through April 7. If you’re one of the 7 million Americans who left cable or satellite behind in 2023, you may be worried that it’ll cost an arm and a leg to watch March Madness this year. Never fear, The Streamable is here to guide you through the least expensive ways to watch the 2024 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament with no cable required!
- Games from the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will be available on CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV, while the women’s games will air on the ESPN family of networks.
- Viewers can stream TNT, TBS, and truTV with a subscription to Sling’s Blue plan and ESPN and ESPN2 on Sling Orange.
- Paramount+ with SHOWTIME carries a 24/7 livestream of local CBS stations in all markets and offers a special 30-day free trial with promo code.
How to Stream the 2024 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments
The 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will be split between several different networks in 2024, as per usual. Games will air on CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV, which means that viewers can watch them on live TV streaming services and other sources. But what’s the cheapest way to stream each and every game? It requires a bit of extra work from viewers, but the savings you’ll get in return are substantial!
On the women’s side, all games will air on the ESPN family of networks, meaning that games will be on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, ESPNEWS, and ESPNU. Sling’s Orange plan carries ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3, which supplies simulcasts of all games airing on ABC. Sling does offer the network in a handful of networks, but for purposes of the women’s basketball tournament, you will be covered with a Sling subscription, no matter where you live.
That means that there will be 15 of the 67 games that you would not have access to with Sling, but they are all in the first two rounds of the tournament and whichever ESPN channel you are watching, there is no doubt that it will keep you updated on all of the action on the other networks.
| DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Free 3-Day Trial | Free Trial | Get $10 Off | Sign Up | |||
| $79.99 | $91.99 | $76.99 | $25 | $40 | $40 | $72.99 | ||
| ABC | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | ✓ | ✓ | |
| CBS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | - | - | ✓ | |
| ESPN | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ | - | ✓ | |
| ESPN2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ | - | ✓ | |
| ESPN3 | - | + $10 | ✓ | - | ✓ | - | ✓ | |
| ESPNEWS | + $15 | + $8 | ✓ | - | + $11 | - | ✓ | |
| ESPNU | + $15 | + $8 | ✓ | - | + $11 | - | ✓ | |
| TBS | ✓ | - | ✓ | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| TNT | ✓ | - | ✓ | - | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| truTV | ✓ | - | ✓ | - | + $6 | ✓ | ✓ | |
In What Markets Does Sling TV Carry ABC?
| Market | Local Affiliate |
|---|---|
| Chicago | WLS |
| Fresno | KFSN |
| Houston | KTRK |
| Los Angeles | KABC |
| New York | WABC |
| Philadelphia | WPVI |
| Raleigh-Durham | WTVD |
| San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose | KGO |
What’s the Cheapest Live TV Service Carrying 2024 Men’s and Women’s March Madness Games?
College basketball fans with a hankering to watch every game of the men’s tournament on the cheap this year will want to start with a subscription to Sling TV. This streamer’s Blue plan starts at just $40 per month, and it carries TBS, TNT, and truTV for customers in all markets. Those who want to stream both the men’s and women’s tournaments can sign up for Sling Orange and Blue at $55 per month to get all channels from both plans. No matter which way you go with Sling, you can get it extra cheap for the duration of the tournament.
If you’ve never tried Sling before, there’s a great deal to help you save. New customers can take 50% off their first month of service with Sling no matter which plan they choose; if you opt for Sling’s Blue plan to watch just TNT, TBS, and truTV, you can grab it now for $20 for your first month, and the same thing is true for the Orange plan, which has ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3. If you upgrade to Sling Orange and Blue, your price for one month is just $27.50.
Sling TV
Sling TV is a live TV streaming service that helps users save money with the option of two distinct plans. The $40/month “Sling Orange” plan offers about 30 channels, including Disney Channel and ESPN. The $40/month “Sling Blue” plan offers about 40 channels, including Fox and NBC local channels.
What’s the Cheapest Way of Watching 2024 March Madness Games on CBS?
Unfortunately for sports fans who want to watch all 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games on Sling TV, the streamer doesn’t carry CBS in any market in the United States. That will leave out a big selection of March Madness games for Sling customers, but luckily there’s another low-cost option they can add to ensure they don’t miss a second of the tournament.
Paramount+ with SHOWTIME carries a live stream of CBS in all American markets, so fans can watch their local CBS station and see every March Madness game playing on the network, as well as news, primetime programming, and all the other content shown on CBS in their city or town. Paramount+ with SHOWTIME also allows viewers to watch shows like “Halo,” “The Collective,” “Tracker” and thousands of other titles on-demand with no commercials during playback.
Best yet, customers who subscribe now using promo code Stallone can get a 30-day free trial of Paramount+ with SHOWTIME. This promo code is useable as of the time of this writing, but Paramount+ cycles its codes regularly, so there’s no telling how much longer this 30-day free trial code will be active. Paramount+ with SHOWTIME normally costs $11.99 per month, so even if you don’t get a 30-day trial, it still offers a great amount of content for a low price.
Paramount+ with SHOWTIME
Paramount+ with SHOWTIME is a video streaming service offering access to A-list movies and compelling original series like Yellowjackets, Billions, Shameless, Homeland, Ray Donovan, Dexter, Weeds, and Nurse Jackie. The service includes live access to your local CBS station, and movies and TV shows from the Paramount library including “Yellowstone” spinoffs from Taylor Sheridan, Nickelodeon shows like “PAW Patrol” and “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and other classics like “Survivor,” “Beavis and Butt-Head,” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
How Much is Paramount+ with SHOWTIME Combined with Sling TV?
If you manage to sign up for the 30-day free trial of Paramount+ with SHOWTIME using promo code Stallone, and you’re a first-time Sling TV customer, you can watch every game of March Madness from March 19 until the national championship game on April 8 for a grand total of $20.
Let’s say you miss out on both offers, however. Paying full price for both Sling TV and Paramount+ with SHOWTIME still adds up to just $51.99 per month, less expensive than even the most bare-bones cable plans from top providers like Charter or Comcast. There’s also no equipment fees or set-up time required to get the Sling and Paramount+ with SHOWTIME combo; simply sign up and start streaming at your leisure, and cancel any time with no early termination fees.
Both Sling TV and Paramount+ with SHOWTIME are offering fantastic introductory prices for new customers to take advantage of. Even if you are shut out of both these deals, however, a combination of Paramount+ with SHOWTIME and Sling TV makes for the cheapest way to stream every single game of the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.