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YouTube’s March Madness Competition Killer

The world’s biggest streaming company just unleashed a sports-centric skinny bundle that will air every game for about the same price as a combined ESPN/HBO Max/Par+ subscription. Is the appeal limited to superfans, or is this just the beginning of YouTube TV’s master plan?

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NCAA Basketball
March Madness will provide the first major test of consumer behavior where a virtual TV provider is about the same price or cheaper than the à la carte streaming combo of HBO Max, Paramount+, and ESPN. Photo: Nicholas Faulkner/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
Julia Alexander
March 17, 2026

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In a couple of days, millions of diehard college basketball fans and Kalshi gamblers—er, sorry, prediction market enthusiasts—will pack their local bars or plop down in front of their TV sets to binge the NCAA basketball tournaments. March Madness is an annual ratings bonanza, with viewership in 2025 surging to a multidecade high. But there’s an emerging question in media C-suites regarding how fans will watch.

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