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Cord Cutters Find Their March Madness Options Restricted

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.

Most recommended from 132 comments



Packeteers
Premium Member
join:2005-06-18
Forest Hills, NY
Asus RT-AC3100
(Software) Asuswrt-Merlin

7 recommendations

Packeteers

Premium Member

sports is why cabletv is so expensive

personally, sports fans can all go F'themselves.

the greedy high cost of sports franchise broadcasts is the main reason why cabetv prices are so high to begin with. if - like me - the only game you watch all year is the superbowl, then you have been overpaying for your cable and should cut the cord.

IMHO: ALL Sports should be PPV so we don't all have to subsidize these millionaire players, million dollar tuition packages, their billionaire team owners, and the educational institutions that profit off their inevitably under educated athletes.
RJW1678
join:2003-01-15
Wilmington, DE

6 recommendations

RJW1678

Member

Who Cares !

As a cord cutter who hates sports on TV, I say who cares? Certainly not me.

Later
Bob W.
Kommie2 (banned)
join:2003-05-13
united state

6 recommendations

Kommie2 (banned)

Member

F@ck Sports

Sports are the reason prices are high, they should be unbundled. Let people have a choice and see how many sports fans there really are.

jseymour
join:2009-12-11
Waterford, MI

4 recommendations

jseymour

Member

Can We Look Forward To...

...them removing the incessant pro and college sports garbage from broadcast TV, too?

Please?

That endless pro and college sports crap on TV is worse than "reality TV."

Jim