How to watch March Madness 2022 live streams online: Schedule, channels and more

The NCAA March Madness logo on a basketball court
(Image credit: Mitchell Layton / Getty)

The March Madness live streams have begun, and we look to the St. Peter's vs North Carolina live stream to see if the big Cinderella story will continue. You can stream this year's NCAA Tournament pretty easily no matter where you are — as Duke pushes itself further and further, while the rest of the bracket roots against them. While some of the best cable TV alternatives are pretty pricy, we've got the right combo to save you cash.

March Madness 2022 schedule, channels

Final Four:  Saturday, April 2 @ 6 p.m. ET
National Championship:
April 4, 9 p.m. ET
Channels: CBS, TBS, TNT, truTV
• Watch in the U.S. on Sling TV and Paramount Plus
• Watch in the U.K. on BT Sport
• Watch in Australia on Kayo Sport
 Watch anywhere — try ExpressVPN 100% risk free 

The word "madness" truly fits this year's edition. St. Peter's continues to blow minds and looks to break through to the final four, despite its No. 15 seed ranking. The Peacocks have truly busted brackets left and right, removing No. 2 seed Kentucky in round 1, beating No. 7 Murray State in the second and toppling No. 3 Purdue on Friday. 

Meanwhile, No. 2 Duke wins and everyone else gets mad. No. 3 Texas Tech fell by five points in the Sweet Sixteen, and Blue Devils knocked out the No. 4 Razorbacks yesterday, winning by nine points. This clinched a Final Four appearance, and who knows if Coach K's farewell season will also bring a trip to the championship game.

Here's everything you need to know to watch March Madness online, plus the full schedule and what we know about the brackets so far.

How to watch March Madness live streams online from anywhere on Earth

Hoops fans, if for some reason you've had to leave your own "bubble" — or you can't get CBS or TBS where you are for some strange reason — and you can't watch the 2021 March Madness live streams you want, you're not out of luck. With a virtual private network, or VPN, you can appear to be surfing the web from your home town (or somewhere that blackouts won't hit), and access the same streaming services you already paid for. 

Not sure which VPN is right for you? We've tested many different services and our pick for the best VPN overall is ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN offers superb speeds and excellent customer service, and there's even a 30-day money-back guarantee if you're not happy with it.

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We think speed, security and simplicity make ExpressVPN second to none. During our tests, we saw fast connection times, and we're impressed by the service's ability to access more than 3,000 services spread out across 160 locations in 94 countries. There's a 30-day money-back guarantee if you're not satisfied.

How to watch March Madness live streams in the US

In the U.S., the March Madness is on four networks: CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV — but the final games will only be on CBS and TBS. 

You can follow all of those channels with Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV, but they're not on our list of the best streaming services. And they cost a lot, at $70 and $65, respectively.

The much more affordable Sling TV Blue ($35 per month) has TBS, TNT and truTV. And then if you add-in Paramount Plus Premium ($9.99 per month) you get CBS there. It all totals to $45 per month, $20 to $25 less than going with one of the other options.

Sling TV

Sling TV nets you three of the four March Madness channels in the $35 per month Sling Blue package. Sling is the live TV service that two of Tom's Guide's streaming coverage staffers used to cut the cord.

Paramount Plus

Paramount Plus combines what used to be CBS All Access with even more content from ViacomCBS partners. Includes Survivor and Big Brother episodes, as well as originals like Star Trek: Discovery, 1883, The Good Fight and the upcoming Halo series.  You can try Paramount Plus with a 7-day free trial.

How to watch March Madness live streams in the UK

Basketball fans across the pond can follow the tournament live on BT Sport, where ESPNHD will feature everything from Selection Sunday to the games.

Prices differ hugely depending on whether you already have BT TV and a BT broadband subscription. If you have both, you can add the Sports package for £15/month plus a £20 upfront fee, or go for the £40/month Big Sports package which also includes all of the Sky Sports channels, giving you a bunch of other sports on top of March Madness.

Another option for non-BT subscribers is the BT Sport Monthly Pass (£25), which lets you watch via an app for a fixed time and doesn't require a lengthy subscription.

All sounds great, right? But if you're not in the U.K., you can still follow the March Madness live streams on a service such as ExpressVPN

How to watch March Madness live streams in Canada

We can't tell how many of the March Madness games will be airing on TSN (TSN2, for example, has an NCAA Bracketology special on Selection Sunday), but we can see it has some NCAA games. 

Completists without a way to watch the games, though, should — like those in the UK — take a VPN service such as ExpressVPN for a spin.

How to watch March Madness live streams in Australia

Australia flag

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

It appears that (as was the case in previous years) Kayo Sports is your best bet for Aussie streaming services serving up March Madness live streams. Kayo offers a 14-day free trial for both its Basic and Premium plans, more than enough time to confirm they're actually showing the games. The Basic package costs $25 per month thereafter. 

The $35 per month Premium Kayo plan gives you all the same things as the normal plan, but it offers three simultaneous streams. The Basic plan gives you two streams at the same time. 

If you want the full American channel broadcasts, though, we recommend trying out ExpressVPN.

March Madness 2022 bracket

The bracket came down on Selection Sunday, with Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas and Baylor at #1 seeds. As mentioned above, Baylor's already out. The rest of the No. 1 seeds are still alive. The below bracket is up to date for the Sweet Sixteen.

The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament bracket

(Image credit: NCAA)

March Madness 2022 schedule

The brackets are set and the first games of March Madness 2022 are in the schedule!

All times below are in Eastern Time:

Sweet 16: 

Thursday, March 24

  • No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 4 Arkansas @ 7:09 p.m. on CBS
  • No. 2 Villanova vs. No. 11 Michigan @ 7:29 p.m. on TBS
  • No. 2 Duke vs. No. 3 Texas Tech @ 9:39 p.m. on CBS
  • No. 1 Arizona vs. No. 5 Houston @ 9:59 p.m. on TBS

Friday, March 25

  • No. 3 Purdue vs. No. 15 Saint Peter's @ 7:09 p.m. on CBS
  • No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 4 Providence @ 7:29 p.m. on TBS
  • No. 4 UCLA vs. No. 8 North Carolina @ 9:39 p.m. on CBS
  • No. 10 Miami (Fla.) vs. No. 11 Iowa State @ 9:59 p.m. @ TBS

Elite Eight: 

  • Saturday, March 26 @ 6 p.m. on TBS
  • Tuesday, March 27 @ 2 p.m. on CBS

Final Four:

  •  Saturday, April 2 @ 6 p.m. on TBS

National Championship: 

  • Monday, April 4 @ 9 p.m. on TBS

Henry T. Casey
Managing Editor (Entertainment, Streaming)

Henry is a managing editor at Tom’s Guide covering streaming media, laptops and all things Apple, reviewing devices and services for the past seven years. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he reviewed software and hardware for TechRadar Pro, and interviewed artists for Patek Philippe International Magazine. He's also covered the wild world of professional wrestling for Cageside Seats, interviewing athletes and other industry veterans.