This year, the NCAA Tournament will be available on virtually every digital platform you can imagine. In addition to being able to watch tournament games among CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV, the March Madness Live app will provide live streaming coverage of the NCAA Tournament for 15 platforms. If you can’t watch, you might not be trying.
Beginning March 11, leading up to Selection Sunday, March Madness Live can be viewed on your desktop at ncaa.com/marchmadness, but it will also be available on a wide variety of platforms, which include Amazon Alexa devices and Xbox this year.
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Besides the streaming game broadcasts, several of the platforms will also provide interactive content for viewers. Apple TV will provide previews, highlights and interactive brackets. Amazon Alexa devices will allow users to ask for scores and game results, as well as provide play-by-play from Westwood One.
Those Westwood One radio broadcast are also available on any of the digital platforms, if you’re not able to watch the NCAA Tournament games but still want to listen.
Desktop and mobile users will have enhanced video through an HTML5 player that will include features such as a real-time shot chart during game action. Before the tournament begins, they can also play in the NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge, which will include upgraded tools and scoring options for participants. The game will also incorporate live video into bracket match-ups.
March Madness Live’s GameCenter will offer real-time highlights and a live blog that provides commentary during tournament games. Mobile users can also get notifications on scores, news and other related information.
That is a whole lot of digital offerings for March Madness Live. The app hasn’t always been the most reliable (my experience with it has usually been pretty solid), but the product presumably gets better each year as the technology is improved and refined.
We’ll surely hear plenty about any platforms and devices that don’t work well during the NCAA Tournament, if that turns out to be the case. The hope is that Turner Sports, along with CBS and the NCAA, hasn’t spread the product too thin over multiple devices and platforms this year.
