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Our cord-cutter’s guide will tell you how to watch every tournament game for the least amount of cash — or for FREE.
Updated on 3/17/24
Graphic from Deposit Photos
It’s the question that comes up every year at this time: How do you watch March Madness without cable?
Once again, CBS and Turner Sports are splitting the broadcast rights to these games, making us scramble to find ways to watch the whole tournament. Out of 67 total games, 49 will be split between three Turner stations and 18 will air on CBS.
Most of us here in Atlanta can get the local CBS station pretty easily. But if you’ve cut the cord and given up on cable, you may not have access to the Turner stations that are running the games — these include TBS, TNT, and truTV.
Still, you have a few options for watching, and we’re outlining them below. Your best bet may be streaming. You may be not able to stream March Madness for free, but you can build it into your entertainment budget fairly cheaply.
Print a FREE March Madness 2024 bracket here, courtesy of the NCAA.
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2024 March Madness schedule
According to Sporting News, this is where each game will be broadcast.
Note that the list below does NOT include your streaming options — those are explained in a separate section below.
The options to stream each game depends on which station is broadcasting it — so you’ll need to know that.
♦ Selection Sunday
March 17, 2024
CBS
♦ First Four
March 19 – 20
truTV
♦ Round 1 and Round 2
March 21 – 24
Watch on CBS, TNT, TBS, truTV
♦ Sweet 16
March 28 – 29
Watch on CBS or TBS
♦ Elite Eight
March 30 – 31
TBS and CBS
♦ Final Four
April 6 – 7
TBS
♦ National championship
April 8
TBS
Deposit Photos
How to watch March Madness 2024 without cable
Here’s a list of your best options to watch Madness for free or cheap in Atlanta!
Watch CBS games with an antenna
Only 18 of the 67 tournament games will air on CBS. But these are the easiest to watch for FREE.
Depending on where you live, you may be able to get great reception from our local CBS affiliate (WGCL-TV, channel 46) by adding a simple antenna to your HDTV.
Yes, we’ll admit it — we use rabbit ears here at Atlanta on the Cheap! It works very well for us inside the Perimeter. Consumer advocate Clark Howard has also written about how much he loves his digital antenna.
You can get an amplified antenna from Amazon, Best Buy, or numerous other sources. This kind of antenna has a power cord that plugs into your household outlet, allowing it to pull in broadcast signals from a larger distance. Prices for these antennas average just $30 on Amazon.
For info on how to stream the CBS games for free, see the section below on the March Madness app!
Head to a watch party
If you have a close friend or family member with a premium cable or satellite service, PLUS a big living room, why not talk them into hosting watch parties for some of the games?
If you want to see all the games, this may not be your best option. But if there are a few games that are especially important to your circle of friends, you could easily arrange this. Remember, if you’re watching at a friend’s house, you should be a good guest — that means paying for the pizza, bringing the beer, helping to clean up, etc.
And if you’re going to splurge on a one-month subscription to one of the streaming services below, you can split the cost with a friend and watch the games together.
Another idea:
If your college alma mater is in the tournament, you may find watch parties hosted by your university’s alumni association.
Here is a list of 154 alumni associations in metro Atlanta.
And of course, there will be opportunities to watch the tournament at sports bars.
Use the March Madness Live app
Every game in the 2024 NCAA Tournament can be streamed with the March Madness Live app, which is easy to download.
Last year, the games that were covered by CBS were available on the app to watch for FREE. We’re working to verify if this will also be the case this year.
But for the games broadcast by Turner, you’ll need to log in with credentials from a cable or satellite TV provider.
You might have a close friend or family member who can share a user name and password for their cable account. But if you ask and they’re not comfortable with it, you should accept that. Different television providers have different levels of tolerance for password sharing.
If you have login credentials, you can watch games thru March Madness Live on your computer, via the website.
You can also download the March Madness Live app for your mobile device, Apple TV, Fire Stick, Roku device, or Xbox. We found it easy to search for the app on our Fire Stick, and to download it.
You may find the app especially useful for “stealth viewing” on your phone or an open browser window while you’re working!
Opt for streaming
The advantage of streaming services is you’re not locked in to a contract, as you are with cable or satellite TV — which is also significantly more expensive than streaming services. You can subscribe to a streaming platform for just one month and then cancel.
Plus, you may already pay for a streaming service that will allow you to watch the tournament games (see the list below) — in which case you can essentially watch March Madness for “free,” since you’re not paying anything more than usual.
If you don’t currently have any of the streaming services listed below, you can purchase a subscription for one month to watch the March Madness games, and then unsubscribe.
You may also get a lot of mileage from the free trial period some services offer (see below).
Note that you may need multiple streaming subscriptions to watch all the games — particularly if you don’t have an antenna that lets you watch our local CBS station, channel 46, over the air.
Below is a guide to the various ways you can stream March Madness, with approximate costs.
NOTE: FuboTV no longer offers any of the Turner channels.
We’ve seen it reported inaccurately that you can watch all tournament games there. Wrong! Only the CBS games will be available via Fubo.
How to stream March Madness games
These are the best options out there!
(There’s a TL;DR version at the end, if you’d prefer a short recap.)
BEST BET: Sling TV
We believe this is the best value if you’re going to pay to stream the March Madness games that air on the Turner channels. Remember, this includes 46 of 67 total games (the other 18 are on CBS).
Sling TV offers a Blue Plan that includes TBS, TNT, and truTV — for a regular price of $40 per month.
There is no free trial this year, but a current offer knocks HALF OFF the first month, so you can watch all the Turner-broadcast games for just $20, if you unsubscribe after your first 30 days.
PLUS, a subscription to Sling TV includes 50 hours of cloud-based DVR storage, so you can record the games while you’re at work.
You can also combine Sling TV with Paramount+ in order to gain access to all the games, for a total subscription price of $32 for a 30-day subscription (remember to cancel before it renews for the second month!)
Paramount+
Paramount+ is the CBS official app.
Remember, you can watch the games broadcast on CBS for FREE with an antenna or via the March Madness Live app.
But if those options don’t work for you, you can get a one-month subscription to Paramount+ for $11.99. That’s the Premium plan — because the basic plan does NOT include access to our local CBS station.
If you subscribe to both Sling TV and Paramount+, you can watch all the March Madness games for about $32.
Paramount+ also offers a 7-day free trial.
YouTube TV
YouTube TV gives you access to all four stations you need to watch the entire tournament — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV.
As a cord-cutting option, Clark Howard says YouTube TV is a great way to save money over cable or satellite.
The regular price is $72.99 per month.
YouTube TV offers a free trial of 7 days.
If you want to subscribe, a limited-time offer knocks $10 OFF your first three months — which means you could watch the entire March Madness tournament for just $62.99 on one streaming service. You could even split the cost with a friend and watch together. (Remember, you have to unsubscribe before the plan continues into the fourth month.)
YouTubeTV also includes DVR storage that lets you record content to watch later.
DirecTV Stream
DirecTV Stream gives you access to TBS, TNT, truTV, and the live feed from our local Atlanta CBS affiliate, WGCL (channel 46). And if you’re watching from outside the Atlanta metro area, you can use the channel lookup tool to find a CBS feed from another affiliate.
The regular price for this package is $89.99 per month.
You can also get a five-day free trial.
This choice is not as frugal as others listed above, but we’re providing it as an option.
Hulu Live
Hulu Live is another great option for cord-cutters, offering savings over cable or satellite TV.
The $89.99 per month package lets you stream all four channels you need for this tournament — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV.
Again, you could split the cost with a friend and watch together.
There is no free trial available for Hulu Live.
We’ve used this service and found it to be a great option for cord-cutting, but it is somewhat expensive.
March Madness streaming services recap
Here’s the TL;DR version of the info above!
♦ Sling TV
Includes TBS, TNT and TruTV
Does NOT include CBS
$40, but you can get $20 OFF the first month
(allows you to record up to 50 hours of content to watch later)
♦ YouTube TV
Includes CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV
$73, but you can get $10 OFF the first 3 months
(allows you to record content to watch later)
♦ DirecTV Stream
Includes CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV
$90 per month
♦ Hulu Live
Includes CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV
$90 per month
♦ March Madness Live app
Lets you watch games for free if you have a cable/satellite login
♦ Paramount+
Includes CBS only
$12 per month for Premium subscription
Subscribe
♦ FuboTV
Includes CBS only
$65 for the first month, then $80
subscribe
You may also be interested in:
- Complete guide to Atlanta spring festivals -- March, April, & May
- Atlanta Fair returns to Turner Field this spring
- Don't miss the Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival
- How to watch March Madness games without cable
- The best things to do in March in Atlanta
- Atlanta Science Festival features dozens of free events
- Gibbs Gardens puts over 20 million flowering bulbs on display
[…] friends at Atlanta on the Cheap wrote up the most complete and correct write-up I’ve seen on how to watch March Madness if you don’t have cable. You should read this to get the whole picture about how to watch the […]