Stream March Madness First Four With Sling TV

For most NCAA basketball teams that enter March Madness, there are six games to win for the National Championship. But for 8 men’s and 8 women’s teams, there is an extra game that is part of the First Four.

In a hurry? You can watch all these teams with Sling TV. Sling Blue gives you TBS and truTV to watch the men’s First Four. And Sling Orange gives you ESPN2 and ESPNU (with the Sports Extra) to watch the women’s First Four. Or get Sling Orange & Blue to watch both. Sign up now and save 50% on Sling TV!

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The high point of the college basketball season is March Madness. And a big part of the fun is found in the Cinderella stories. And there is no place like the First Four matchups to find long-odds teams eager to surprise like the VCU Rams in 2011, which went from First Four to Final Four.

And Sling TV offers the best deal to watch the every game from the First Four to the Final Four in both men’s and women’s basketball. Read on to get all the details.

See our full Sling TV March Madness guide for more information!

Channels to Watch March Madness First Four

You can watch men’s March Madness live on TNT, TBS, truTV, and CBS. But the First Four is exclusively on truTV:

• Tue Mar 19 5:30 pm: Men’s First Four Game #1 (truTV)
• Tue Mar 19 8:00 pm: Men’s First Four Game #2 (truTV)
• Wed Mar 20 5:30 pm: Men’s First Four Game #3 (truTV)
• Wed Mar 20 8:00 pm: Men’s First Four Game #4 (truTV)

The women’s First Four, like all of March Madness, will air on ESPN channels. Here is the schedule:

• Wed Mar 20 7:00 pm: Women’s First Four Game #1 (ESPNU)
• Wed Mar 20 9:00 pm: Women’s First Four Game #2 (ESPNU)
• Thu Mar 21 6:00 pm: Women’s First Four Game #3 (ESPN2)
• Thu Mar 21 8:00 pm: Women’s First Four Game #4 (ESPN2)

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Stream First Four With Sling TV

You can stream all of the First Four March Madness games with Sling TV. But as it is the most customizable streaming service in the industry, Sling TV offers lots of ways to do it.

Four Ways to Stream First Four Games

Depending upon your exact desires, you can watch all these games in a number of ways. Note that all of these include the following base channels:

First Four Method 1: Just Men’s

If you are only interested in the men’s games, sign up for Sling Blue. It provides truTV, which airs all the First Four games. It also provides TNT and TBS, which will allow you to watch most of the rest of the NCAA Tournament including the Final Four and Championship game.

The total price is $40.00/mo and includes local affiliates of Fox and NBC in select markets. (ABC is also available in select markets but it increases the cost by $5/mo). Also included:

First Four Method 2: Just Women’s

For those focused on the women’s basketball tournament, you need to start with Sling Orange. It provides ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3. This alone will allow you to watch most of the tournament. It also comes with The Disney Channel, Freeform, MotorTrend, and QVC.

You will only get half of the First Four games, however. To stream the other two, you will need ESPNU. It is available with the Sports Extra add-on for $11/mo for a total cost of $51/mo. The Sports Extra comes with these channels:

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First Four Method 3: Men’s and Women’s Basic

In addition to the ESPN channels, Sling Orange comes with TBS and TNT — allowing you to also watch most of the men’s March Madness. To watch the First Four, you will need truTV. You can add this to the Sling Orange plan with the Entertainment Extra for $6/mo. That makes the total price for everything (including the Sports Extra) is just $57/mo.

In addition to the channels listed above, you will get:

First Four Method 4: Everything

Another way to get access is to sign up for the Sling Orange & Blue plan and add Sports Extra ($15/mo) for a total cost of $70/mo (or $75 if ABC is included).

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Sling TV Features

The base Sling TV plans come with 50 hours of cloud DVR storage so you can keep your games to watch later. Or you can keep them indefinitely because, unlike many providers, there is no time limit on storage.

All the channels that come with the Sling Blue plan allow you to watch on up to three devices at once. But the channels that are specific to the Sling Orange plan are limited to a single device at a time.

Sling TV also allows you to live stream on most devices. These include Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku devices. You can stream on mobile devices with Android and iOS (iPhone) systems. Smart TVs with Anroid TV as well as LG, Samsung, and Vizio models are supported. And so are Oculus and Xbox gaming systems.

This means that you can watch the men’s games in multiple rooms of your house, but you can’t for the women’s games. The reason for this is that ESPN is one of the most expensive channels to license. So it is limited. But it also means that Sling TV is by far the cheapest way to get ESPN channels.

As the discussion above indicates, Sling TV is high customizable. There are dozens of other channel add-ons.

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Wrapping Up

Sling TV is the cheapest way to watch NCAA March Madness First Four games. And if you sign up now, you’ll get 50% off your first month — an unbelievable deal to watch March Madness.

Sign up for Sling TV today!

Save 50% on Sling TV Now

FAQs

Can I watch the rest of March Madness with Sling TV?

The men’s tournament games will be aired across truTV, TBS, TNT, and CBS. And the women’s games are aired on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPNews. All these channels are available through Sling TV except for CBS. You can get CBS by integrating an antenna or by signing up for Paramount+ Premium.

What is the March Madness First Four?

The First Four is a play-in for March Madness. The tournament starts with 68 teams. The bottom 8 teams seeded compete in 4 games, the winners of which go on to March Madness proper along with the other 60 teams. This takes place for both the women’s and men’s basketball tournaments.

Can I watch the First Four with other streaming services besides Sling TV?

Other streaming services allow you to watch the First Four games. These include DIRECTV STREAM, Hulu + Live TV, and YouTube TV. All of these services offer more channels but they are notably more expensive, even if you include the addition of Paramount+ with your Sling TV subscription.

How can I watch specific teams in the First Four?

We don’t yet know which teams will take part in the First Four or the rest of March Madness. But we have guides for the following NCAA basketball teams:

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Frank Moraes

Frank Moraes is Content Editor at HotDog where he specializes in sports streaming and its various technical issues. He is responsible for the site’s thorough coverage of the regional sports networks (RSNs) — essential for MLB, NBA, and NHL fans.

He got his start in Atmospheric Physics and remote sensing where he created software for point-to-point streaming of video and other data. Since that time, Frank has worked as a tech writer specializing in the nexus of technology and entertainment. His other passion is low-budget and "weird" films, which you can read about at Psychotronic Review.

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