Two Streamers and $23 Is All You Need to Watch Every Game of March Madness

With March Madness starting soon, it’s time to map out your tournament viewing plans. You may need to schedule a long lunch for Thursday or Friday or both days to catch some of the opening round madness. Clear your weekend schedule for the glory that is the second round when, hopefully, a Cinderella (or two) that you picked in your bracket punches its ticket to the Sweet Sixteen. After you’ve made the appropriate adjustments to get yourself in front of a TV for March Madness, you’ll then need to figure out the cheapest way to watch the games.

March Madness will be televised across four channels: CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV. Three of the five major live TV streaming services offer this quartet of channels, as do most cable and satellite TV packages. The cost of live TV streaming services continues to creep upward to the point where the cheapest live TV streaming service with all four channels needed for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament costs $83 a month. That’s getting to be cable bill territory. You can spend a lot less and watch every March Madness game.

Paramount Plus and Max are all you need for March Madness

With two streaming services that cost a combined $23, you can watch every tournament game. The $13-a-month Paramount Plus with Showtime plan will get you the games broadcast on CBS, and Max’s $10-a-month Basic with Ads plan will show the games on TBS, TNT and TruTV. 

That’s it! With these two streamers, you can watch the First Four play-in games starting on Tuesday on TruTV and ending with the Final Four and national championship game on CBS in early April.

With the $13 a month Paramount Plus with Showtime plan, you can livestream the March Madness games broadcast on CBS. The final two rounds of the tournament flip-flop between TBS and CBS each year, and this year’s Final Four and national championship will be shown on CBS.

Read our Paramount Plus review.

The Basic with ads plan for Max costs $10 a month and will show March Madness games on TBS, TNT or TruTV. 

Live sports on Max will soon require the $17 a month ad-free Standard plan, but you won’t need to shell out for it to watch this year’s March Madness games. The change goes into effect on Sunday, March 30, and the last games broadcast on TBS/TNT/TruTV are the two Elite Eight games on TBS on Saturday, March 29. The Final Four and national championship will air on CBS, so you won’t need Max after the Elite Eight round.

Read our Max review.

When does March Madness start?

March Madness begins Tuesday with two play-in games followed by two more play-in games the next night. After these First Four games, the field of 64 is set and the tournament begins in earnest on Thursday with a full slate of first-round games. 

You can check out all of the tournament matchups at the official March Madness bracket.

March Madness tournament schedule

Here are the schedules, round by round, for both the men’s and women’s tournaments:

Men’s March Madness schedule

• First Four: March 18–19
• First round: March 20–21
• Second round: March 22–23
• Sweet 16: March 27–28
• Elite Eight: March 29–30
• Final Four: Saturday, April 5
• National championship: Monday, April 7 

Women’s March Madness schedule

• First Four: March 19–20
• First round: March 21–22
• Second round: March 23–24
• Sweet 16: March 28–29
• Elite Eight: March 30–31
• Final Four: Friday, April 4
• National championship: Sunday, April 6

What devices support Max and Paramount Plus?

You’ll find an app for the Paramount Plus and Max streaming services on an iPhone or Android phone, as well as an iPad, Android tablet or Amazon Fire tablet. Each service is also available on mainstream streaming platforms, including Roku, Apple TV, Android TV/Google TV and Fire TV, as well as smart televisions from major manufacturers LG, Samsung and Vizio. They’re also accessible through Xbox and PlayStation game consoles.

March Madness TV Deals

For more specifics, check out the full list of supported devices for Paramount Plus and Max.