How to Watch March Madness 2026

A comprehensive guide on where and how to stream the 2026 March Madness NCAA basketball tournament, covering various platforms like HBO Max, Hulu, and YouTube TV, as well as traditional cable options.

Spring is upon us, which means the beginning of the end of seasonal depression (fingers crossed), spring breaks with the kids, and of course, brackets and betting with March Madness.

This is the annual tournament that determines which men’s and women’s Division I teams will win the NCAA Basketball championships. This year, the games begin on Tuesday, March 17 for the men and Wednesday, March 18 for the women.

However, 2026 March Madness officially starts this weekend, with the announcement on March 15 of the participating teams on Selection Sunday.

You can watch the March Madness games live if you still subscribe to the old-school cable box, but who are we kidding—I know you’ve cut the cable and want to stream the games on the internet.

To stream March Madness games for the NCAA Championship, you'll have to access various platforms. I’ve done all the research for you, including how much it costs and what’s included (and when you should cancel your membership after March Madness ends).

Where to Stream

HBO Max ($18.49 a month and up for the tiers with live sports): Your HBO Max account lets you stream 42 of the men's March Madness games airing across CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV. There are a few tiers of HBO Max available, and the service is frequently bundled with Hulu and Disney+, but just know that the cheapest $11 per month plan for HBO Max does not include live sports streaming. There's the Standard plan at $18.49 that gets you all the games in HD, and the Premium plan at $23 a month that shows the games in 4K with Dolby Atmos audio. (WIRED also has Max promo codes, which can help you save on Max subscription plans.) No free trial.

Paramount+ Premium ($13 per month): To watch any men's March Madness games that are being broadcast on CBS, get the Paramount+ Premium plan. Since this subscription gets you the games airing on CBS, and HBO Max's Standard plan gets you the games airing the big cable networks, you can watch all of the men's March Madness games with a combination of these two plans. Just note that Paramount+ Premium is marketed as ad-free streaming, but that doesn't apply to live TV; your NCAA coverage will include ads. One-week free trial.

ESPN Unlimited ($30 a month). ESPN's top-tier streaming service has all of the programming across all of the ESPN networks. This is a great option if you want to watch all of the women's March Madness games, since the entire women's tournament will be shown across ESPN's various channels. ESPN is frequently bundled in with Hulu and Disney+, but if you have one of these bundles, just check your ESPN tier to make sure your plan lets you watch all the games.

Hulu + Live TV ($90 per month): You can watch all of the games—men's and women's—that are being broadcast live on CBS, TBS, TNT, truTV, and ESPN in one place by choosing a Hulu subscription with the “Live TV” add-on. This package is a steep $83 per month, but Hulu gives you a three-day free trial. Hulu has been amping up its NCAA coverage in recent years, with personalized recommendations, live TV video streaming on up to two devices, push notifications when games are starting, and the ability to mark games you want to watch later. (WIRED also has Hulu coupons, which can help you save on Hulu subscription plans.) Three-day free trial.

YouTube TV ($83 per month): Having YouTube TV is like having live TV from basically any channel you want, with content from over 100 channels, including CBS, ABC and the cable channels with March Madness coverage. You can stream every televised men's and women's game with this package. YouTube TV also has a cool multi-view feature that lets you arrange four streams on the television at once, so you can watch multiple games at the same time. If you sign up right now, until March 17, you can save big on your first two months with a discounted plan of only $60 per month.

Sling ($35 per month): Through this service, you can stream March Madness game coverage on ESPN, TNT, and TBS. Sling’s basic plan, Orange, is half off for your first month at $35. After that, it's $70 a month. This plan gets you Men’s and Women’s College Basketball streaming at home or on other devices. If you just want to root for your alma matter, Sling offers days passes that unlock access to the channels showing March Madness games for $6 per day.

DirecTV (starting at $80 per month): DirecTV has different packages, starting from $80 per month all the way to twice that price. The $80 Entertainment package will get you coverage from TBS, TNT, CBS, ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2, and FOX Sports 1, among other channels, so you can watch almost all of the men's and women's games. Die-hard college sports fans will want the Choice package which has the Big Ten Conference, live NCAA college football, and more collegiate regional networks. DirecTV Sports Central hub also gives customized viewing experiences with real-time stats, pregame odds, game time notifications, and more. Certain plans offer a five-day free trial.

How to Watch on Cable TV

If you want to go old school and watch the men's games live, you can watch on four cable networks: CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. Games will be broadcast on local CBS affiliates, and if you have an antenna, you’ll be able to watch the games without any cable or streaming subscriptions. Check those providers for specific game times.

The NCAA website will also be streaming the games live, but you’ll need to sign into the site using the same credentials you use for your TV provider to watch. Annoying, but it’s helpful if you’re stuck at the office.

For the women's tournament, ABC will air select games, and all the ESPN networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU) will broadcast games as well. Here’s the full schedule of programming for the women’s tournament if you want to plan ahead.

How March Madness Works

March Madness is the single-elimination tournament of NCAA Division I basketball teams (68 of them in both women’s and men’s tournaments) that compete in rounds for the national championship.

March Madness is popular in part due to its bracket-style games’ schedule, which makes it easy to chart the teams’ progress through the tournament. Here’s a printable PDF of the NCAA bracket, if you like keeping tabs old-school pen-and-paper style, or here’s the official interactive bracket to keep track online.

March Madness 2026 Schedule

Selection Sunday is the official start to March Madness and is the day when the selection committee reveals the full tournament bracket, including all teams and all seeds. The NCAA regularly updates information on Selection Sunday and how to watch the bracket reveal. The men’s and women’s Selection Sunday is scheduled for March 15. You can watch the men’s at 6 pm EDT on CBS and the Women’s at 8 pm EDT on ESPN.

The games take place leads up to the penultimate round, known as the Final Four, when (shocker) only four teams are left. Those teams then compete for the final head-to-head championship game. The Final Four men’s games will take place on April 4, and the championship game will take place Monday April 6, both at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The Final Four women’s games will be on April 3, with the championship on April 5, both at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix.

NCAA Men’s March Madness 2026 Tournament: