March Madness is my favorite time of year. Well, except for 2020 when we all missed out on the tournament. But now that we’re well past the COVID pain (we think), it’s time to enjoy the best time of the year for college basketball fans.

Dating back a few years, my family and I just got tired of the pain of using cable boxes and such to watch TV and sports. We made the big shift to using Roku streaming devices when we moved back to SoCal a few years ago, and we have not looked back.

So you’re somewhat of a novice with Roku and streaming devices. We know the games are being broadcast nationally on the following channels: CBS, TBS, truTV, and TNT, so how can you watch the March Madness tournament games live on Roku?

When Does March Madness Start? (2023)

March Madness is set to begin vert soon, so you’ll need to figure out your Roku before the first games.

The 2023 NCAA Tournament officially kicks off with the Selection Show on Sunday, March 12th. By the time the Academy Awards announce the best picture of 2023 that night, we’ll know the full March Madness bracket.

We quickly move into the play-in games that are always held in Dayton, Ohio starting on Tuesday, March 14th and wrapping up on Wednesday, March 15th. The First Round of March Madness kicks off March 16-17 followed by the second round of game son March 18th and 19th. The Final Four will be held on April 1st followed by the 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Championship game on April 3rd, 2023.

How Do I Live Stream March Madness on Roku?

Whether or not you have a Roku-powered smart TV or Roku TV box, the steps are very similar. First, you need to know that Roku is a platform and thought they Roku has their own channel, it doesn’t air live TV in itself. Roku is a system that allows you to navigate applications on your television like a computer.

You’re familiar with Netflix, HBO Max, and Hulu? It’s the same concept except you need a streaming app that has live TV with the channels that show the tournament games.

So in order to watch March Madness, you will need to decide which TV service you want to use as a free trial if you can’t get the broadcast channels over the air for the tournament.

You have a variety of choices of apps to download and use their service, and most include a free trial. Here’s a list of apps you can download/add to your Roku in order to catch March Madness 2023:

• FuboTV
• Hulu with Live TV
• YouTube TV
• Vidgo
• Sling TV
• DIRECT TV Stream

Again the networks that are showing the 2023 edition of March Madness are TruTV, TBS, TNT, and CBS. Once you choose one of these providers, you’ll have full access to all the games during March Madness.

Another positive is that you often don’t have to buy any equipment. If you have a smart TV, all you have to do is download/locate the app of your choosing, add it to your Roku home screen, and sign up.

If I am on Cable How Do I Stream March Madness on Roku?

So, if you love your cable, no problem for most cable companies depending on where you live. It seems like just about everyone’s service has become Comcast, Spectrum, or AT&T. If you fall into one of these bins, then you can simply download your cable subscriber’s app to your Roku device or TV and you are all set.

I would recommend testing this before game day so you don’t run into the problem of missing out though. If your cable subscriber does not have a streaming option that you can use on Roku devices, then look above for the various free trial options you can try out for other services like YouTube TV that you can use to check out the March Madness action.

If you are lucky enough for an over the air broadcast (and want to invest in a 20 dollar antenna), this is your cheapest option; albeit, with no DVR capability without more investment.