Giveaways, Discounts Mark Start of NCAA March Madness Promo Frenzy

Consumer tech, retail and media companies are serving up deals and programming for the 68-team NCAA March Madness men’s basketball tournament that begins Thursday at various locations around the country and runs through April 4.

Best Buy pitched customers on big-screen TVs starting as low as $299 for its private labeled Insignia-brand 50-inch TV. On a basketball-themed page, deals were modest for tier 1 brands, amid supply chain constraints. Sony’s $1,799 75-inch X90J Google TV was marked down by $200; a 58-inch Samsung 58-inch Tizen TV was shaved by $50 to $479; and a 50-inch LG UP8000 webOS TV was dropped by $80 to $399. Toshiba’s 50-inch Fire TV was $80 off to $349.

Roku has an official NCAA March Madness channel where users can watch live games, follow their brackets, check scores and view highlights, with caveats. After a three-hour free preview, users have to log in via a paid TV subscription for games broadcast on TBS, TNT and truTV, and CBS games aren’t available to watch in the Roku March Madness Live app, says a Roku blog post.

Roku gives users information on how they can get access to games via subscription VOD services; its guide shows the confusing state of the streaming TV market. Games on TBS, TNT and truTV require a cable or satellite subscription or a subscription to DirecTV Stream, Hulu+Live TV, Sling TV or YouTube TV. To stream games on CBS, Roku users need a subscription to Paramount+, starting at $5.99; or, in "select markets,” they can stream on CBS with a subscription to DirecTV Stream, fuboTV, Hulu+Live TV or YouTube TV.

Consumers who buy an LG OLED or QNED TV through April 6 can get a Fanatics gift card valued at up to $100 in a "deal made for madness," says the LG website. Gift cards are $100 for OLED models; $50 for QNED TVs.

WiSA Technologies is giving away three Platin surround-sound systems to March Madness participants who submit their brackets via the ESPN Tournament Challenge, the company emailed Wednesday. The top three brackets will win systems valued at $999, $899 and $699, it said. Participants can enter here. Entries are limited to one per user.

TuneIn inked a deal with Westwood One to give its Premium listeners access to NCAA Division I men’s and women’s tournaments, it said Wednesday. The deal also covers other NCAA sports championship tournaments, including baseball, ice hockey and lacrosse. TuneIn can be accessed in over 100 countries on connected devices from Amazon, Apple, Bose, Google and Sonos and via Tesla’s in-dash experience.