Hulu Brings You More Access to the Madness This Year

By: Gene Miller, Head of Sports Experience at Hulu

March is upon us, which means it’s time for “The Big Dance!” Every year, basketball fans across the nation celebrate the most exciting three weeks of sports: March Madness. At Hulu, we are always striving to give our subscribers more choice and flexibility. That’s why, starting today, we’re excited to provide Hulu viewers with an even better, personalized March Madness experience – this time with more live coverage and features.

Last year, we launched our first-ever March Madness experience including a personalized team-picker and game start mobile notifications – and the response from our viewers was overwhelmingly positive. Fans were able to navigate to live games on Hulu 30% faster and devotedly follow their favorite teams – even during work hours. In fact, of the Hulu + Live TV viewers watching March Madness during the first two days of the tournament, 45% tuned into games during work hours (between 10:00am – 7:00pm EST).

Heading into this year’s tournament, here’s what viewers can expect out of their Hulu experience as they watch the NCAA games.

More Coverage
Hulu + Live TV subscribers will be able to catch March Madness games – live and recorded – across major networks.*

– Men’s Tournament: Full availability on TNT, TBS, TruTV and CBS
– Women’s Tournament: Full availability on ESPN’s family of networks including ESPN College Extra

Beyond streaming the NCAA tournament, Hulu + Live TV subscribers also have access to more than 85,000 episodes of television – from The Handmaid’s Tale to Killing Eve and Seinfeld – as well as hit sports documentaries such as Unbanned, the Legend of AJ1 and Free Solo.

Customized Features
Our viewers loved our March Madness experience last year, so we are bringing it back and adding some new features serving casual and super fans alike:

– Team Picking & Onboarding (available on supported iOS and living room devices): Starting today when Live TV viewers launch the app, they will be able to select the NCAA Men’s and Women’s teams they want to follow throughout the tournament. By adding a team to My Stuff, we will serve up those games at the top of your Live Now section and record them for you so you never miss a moment of the action.
– Gameday Collections & March Madness Hub: To get to all live Men’s and Women’s games quickly, we’ve set up dedicated collections on Home. For the fan who wants to see the full schedule of live and upcoming games, click the link in the Game Day collection to visit our dedicated March Madness Hub.
– Manage Your Favorite Teams: As the tournament progresses, we all deal with busted brackets, which is why we created a new feature that allows viewers the ability to go back and re-select the teams they wish to follow as the tournament continues.
– Game Start Push Notifications: We know that sometimes fans will need to access their games on the go, so we will continue to have our mobile notifications feature to alert you right before your favorite game is about to start. By selecting your favorite teams in the onboarding experience, you will automatically receive game start push notifications that can take you straight to the game with a single tap on your mobile device.
– Multiple Window Viewing on Hulu.com: For those interested in several games that are airing at one time, we’ve enabled multiple window viewing on your browser so you can flip back to each game when you want.
– Channel Switching on Our Live TV Guide: With more than 130 games taking place between the Men’s and Women’s tournaments, there is a lot of action to keep up with over the next few weeks. Head to the “Sports” collection in our Live TV Guide to flip through your games with ease.

Hulu + Live TV subscribers can access Hulu’s personalized March Madness experience until the final championship game on April 8, so make sure to join us for every dunk, jump shot and free throw.

We hope you enjoy your March Madness experience on Hulu!

*Coverage is subject to blackouts and regional availability. View local channel coverage in your area here.