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This weekend is the Final Four, and if you’re interested in keeping tabs on the big games without being stuck in front of your television, our App of the Week is the perfect solution. 

Turner Sports Interactive’s NCAA March Madness Live app features recaps of all the past games played in the basketball tournament, and offers free live streaming of ongoing games, with a qualifying cable subscription. Best of all, it’s a brilliantly designed cross-platform app that makes the seemingly arcane maze of available television coverage seem approachable.

It’s easily one of the best sports apps that I’ve used. The user interface feels intuitive and easy to approach as a March Madness outsider, but it also feels like it has all the right features for people who want a deeper experience.

unnamed-2Like many of the other sports apps out on the market today, users can set notifications for particular teams and particular games, so that they can keep up with the action through messages on their phone and only tune into the action when they want to.

One of the killer features of the app is the ability to set up notifications for special events across the tournament, like major upsets, and close games that are coming down to the wire. For people who just want to see exciting and tight basketball games, it’s a great option.

kiroradioApp of the Week is a regular feature of the GeekWire radio show and podcast, airing every weekend on KIRO-FM (97.3) in Seattle. Listen to this week’s segment below, or via this MP3 file.

For people who haven’t kept up with all of the past games played in the tournament, the app also features short recap videos that provide a look at the most important action. For people who don’t necessarily want to spend their nights watching basketball, the recaps are a great way to get up to date on the day’s games for water cooler discussion.

If there’s one disadvantage to March Madness Live, it’s the app’s insistence that users have an active cable subscription in order to watch some live games. (Games broadcast on CBS can be streamed without a cable subscription, but games on TBS, TNT and TruTV require one.) Though cord-cutters shouldn’t lose hope: it’s possible to purchase a 3-hour live video pass to catch a favorite game.

Still, for fans of the NCAA’s annual basketball tournament, March Madness Live is an excellent experience.

NCAA March Madness Live is available from the iOS App Store, Google Play Store, Amazon AppStore and Windows Phone Store.

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