March Madness On Demand: You Get What You Pay For

by srr50 on Mar 6, 2026 3:28 PM CST

Since 2006, every NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament game could be accessed online for free. Starting this year, having March Madness available on any and all mobile devices will cost you -- if you don't already subscribe to cable or satellite.

Last year CBS sold portions of the NCAA tournament to Time Warner's cable channels TBS, TNT and TrueTV. The deal ensures that every contest is available nationally, but beginning this year, non-cable subscribers will pay a one-time fee of $3.99 to view all the action online or on mobile devices. Cable subscribers will be able to use their TV account to log in.

Actually "March Madness on Demand" wasn't always free. Ten years ago you had to pay a $15 fee in order to watch all the games online. In 2006, CBS decided to go advertiser-supported online and offered MMOD for free.

Time Warner estimates that 77 million homes will be able to watch the games for free, leaving another estimated 23 million homes who would need to pay the small fee. Last year viewership was up 14% on the first weekend with the expanded cable coverage, but both CBS and Time Warner saw the online viewership as an untapped financial resource.

Online viewing was up 17% in 2011, with viewers racking up almost 14 million hours of watching online.

Time Warner understand that their future depends on the "TV Everywhere" concept where viewing online or on any mobile device is authorized only if you are paying for cable, satellite or telco at home. Cable giants hope that by bundling services like this they will slow down "cord cutting" as viewers drift away from their services.

As for the worker bees who will be sneaking peeks at the games next Thursday and Friday -- fear not, the "Boss Button" survives.

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It's the most wonderul time of the year!!!

Can’t wait.

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by Sailor Ripley on Mar 6, 2026 6:57 PM CST reply actions

I wish we had more a la carte options for sports programming

$4 bucks for a month’s worth of games is great. I would gladly pay some sort of nominal fee like this to catch Texas sports, etc. $10/month. $1-$2 / game. There are all sorts of pricing models, and we clearly have the technology to pull it off. It is 2012, and consumers want this; when is it going to happen?

Of course, if this was an option, cable subscriptions would drop, and there might not be any Extreme Couponing or Dog the Bounty Hunter. I think society can stand that blow.

Cable is expensive, and mostly a bunch of crap that I don’t want. Give me a couple of basketball games a week, and I will be more than happy.

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by Reggieball on Mar 6, 2026 7:18 PM CST reply actions

The cable companies are hopeful that you will accept the "pass-through"

pricing instead of cutting the cord. They are hoping that the convenience of getting the games online or your phone will be enough to keep you paying for “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

by srr50 on Mar 6, 2026 7:28 PM CST reply actions

Commercials

Am I to understand that I, as a non cable subscriber, can pay 3.99 and experience commercial free march madness?

Or will I merely be adding 3.99 to the drudgery of watching commercials?

I’ve cut the chord with cable. The only future I foresee that includes cable in the Nickel Rover home is one in which I pay only for the channels I want.

by Nickel Rover on Mar 6, 2026 8:12 PM CST reply actions

You will see the commercials online

Oh and as a matter of fact, should you be using the “Boss Button” at work be careful. If you are watching the game and you spot your boss coming by, the “Boss Button” will not work if it is during a commercial.

You will have to manually turn the volume down and bring something else up on the screen.

by srr50 on Mar 6, 2026 8:39 PM CST reply actions

But different

You still get commercials, but different ones. Personally, I’d rather be blasted with a full out network mix than get trapped on a feed with only a few sponsors. I get DirecTV, which fills a lot of the local spots with its own advertising — over and over and over. The best catch is a network feed going to some other market, since then they may fill the local spots with live filler — shots of the field or sidelines. DirecTV has a 3D channel that gets its own feed on some ESPN-HD games. There you get the same promo spots over and over, but it’s 3D!

Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.

by Caradoc on Mar 7, 2026 3:19 PM CST up reply actions