In a matchup of college basketball bluebloods normally reserved for the Final Four, No. 1 seed North Carolina will take on No. 9 Michigan State in the Round of 32. In the last 10 NCAA tournaments alone, these schools have combined for 11 Sweet 16 appearances. Today, one of them will add to that list.
The game is about to start, at 5:30 p.m. ET, and will be televised on CBS. That gives us a bunch of ways we can watch a live stream of the game–and watch March Madness in general–online for free.
As we just mentioned, there are a whole lot of different ways you can watch this game for free. Which option you choose will ultimately come down to what all you’re looking to get from your streaming service.
With YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream, which both include CBS (live in most markets), TNT, TBS and truTV, you’ll be able to watch every tournament game for as long as you keep the service. Both offer a free five-day trial, meaning if you stagger them correctly, you can watch all of this weekend’s Round of 32 games, and then all of next week’s Sweet 16 and Elite 8 contests.
If you just want to watch UNC vs Michigan State, or you just want to watch the CBS games, Paramount+ is your best option there. The “with SHOWTIME” option, which will get you a live stream of your local CBS channel, comes with a seven-day free trial before moving to just $12 per month.
And if you’ve already used up your free trial, you can also get Paramount+ through Amazon Prime Channels (it’s the same thing, only you’ll watch on Amazon’s app/website instead), which offers a separate seven-day trial.
Fubo‘s “Pro” channel package is another way you can get CBS for free. It doesn’t have TBS, TNT or truTV, so you won’t be able to watch any of those games, but it’s nevertheless another option with a free trial (seven days) that will work for this particular game.
Finally, you can head over to the March Madness Live app or website. Every single game of the tournament is available on these platforms, and you’ll be able to watch unrestricted for three hours before needing to sign in to a cable provider for access.
No matter which of those streaming services you have or want to use, you’ll need a virtual private network (VPN) to access them from abroad. If that’s the case, NordVPN will be exactly what you’re looking for. It’s reliable, it doesn’t limit your bandwidth speeds and it’s compatible with all of the aforementioned services.
We’ve also put together lists of the best VPN services and best VPN deals if you want to peruse those for some alternative options.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.