March Madness recently began with the selection of teams who would be participating in the college basketball tournament. This year, every game, including the "first four" play-in games will be on TV, split between CBS and Turner-owned channels (TNT, TBS and TruTV).
Recently, the March Madness Live app was released and can be found in the Amazon Appstore, Apple App Store, Google Play, and Windows Store (Sorry Blackberry users, no app for you). Unlike past years where it cost between $3.99 and $10 to purchase, this year’s app is free and will air any game on TNT, TBS or TruTV.
Unfortunately for cord cutters, if you do not have a cable subscription then, you will only be able to stream three hours of games (found on TNT, TBS and TruTV) via NCAA.com before being forced to authenticate, similar to NBC's Olympic and Live Extra coverage or HBO GO. CBS Sports has confirmed that any game aired on CBS can be streamed online for free and without any metering or authentication. Don’t forget that the initial Final Four games will be on TBS, with a simulcast on TNT and TruTV.
CBS, much like ABC, NBC, and Fox, continue making decisions for no reason other than wanting to punish cord-cutting people who don’t want to pay ridiculous amounts for channels they will never watch.
Instead of greater availability, we keep seeing ever-more fractured catalogs and greater restrictions, all in the false belief they're protecting legacy TV revenues from inevitable evolution. Instead, the policies drive users to the very piracy options broadcasters proudly proclaim they're immensely dedicated to thwarting.