How to watch the March Madness basketball tournament on Paramount Plus

Fletcher Loyer (cropped out of the shot) fouls Zakai Zeigler while battling for control of a loose ball during the Elite Eight round of the 2024 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament in March 2024

(Image credit: Photo by Jamie Sabau/NCAA Photos)

Seeing as the rights to the 2025 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament (March Madness) are split between six different services, you may be surprised to learn that you can watch the very best of the action with only one subscription.

Selection Sunday will lay down the foundation for the 2025 March Madness tournament, a single-elimination college basketball tournament that is set to start on March 18. Read on as we explain how to watch March Madness on Paramount Plus, why it should be your first port of call, and how you can get a free trial.

CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV are this year's March Madness broadcasters, while Paramount Plus will live stream all of CBS's coverage, and Max will do the same for TBS, TNT and TruTV. However, CBS and Paramount Plus hold the exclusive rights to the Selection Show, the National Championship game and both semi-finals. On top of these marquee events, they'll also show several selected games from every other round.

While you could get access to CBS via an OTT streaming service like Fubo, the base-level Essential Plan costs a steep $84.99 per month, albeit with $25 off your first month and after a 7-day free trial.

At $12.99 per month or $119.99 per year after a 7-day free trial, a Paramount Plus subscription costs a tiny fraction of that, and if you cancel before your free trial ends you won't be charged.

While Paramount Plus hasn't quite made the grade as one of the very best streaming services, now's as good a time as any to give it a spin. That's because, in addition to March Madness, it has the rights to Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference league soccer, and all three competitions have just entered their knockout rounds phase.

Paramount Plus also provides access to originals and licensed shows and movies, and three of CBS' hottest properties have just come out: "Survivor" season 48, "The Amazing Race" season 37, and "Yellowjackets" season 3.

It carries everything in the Taylor Sheridan universe too, plus a deep library of movies that's updated monthly. Amongst this month's additions are the late, great David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" and "Dune". Check out our list of what's new on Paramount Plus in March 2025 for the full haul.

Paramount Plus is also enticing to cord-cutters thanks to its offering of live news, including local channels for 13 markets including Boston, Chicago, Colorado, Los Angeles, Miami and New York.

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Aatif is a freelance journalist and copywriter based in the UK. He’s written about technology, sport and politics for a wide range of publications including TechRadar, What Hi-Fi?, The Independent, Trusted Reviews, and Newsweek. These days, he focuses mainly on streaming at Future, an arrangement that combines two of his greatest passions: live TV and penny-pinching. When he's not attending a top-flight English soccer match, you can find him perfecting his table tennis skills.