Turner to charge viewers to stream NCAA Tournament games

CBS and Turner Sports will be happy to let viewers watch this year's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament online ... in Turner's case, for a price.

Users of computers, smartphones and tablets will face a new $3.99 charge to watch the games which will be televised on TBS, TNT and truTV online, Turner announced this morning.

Games streamed on CBSSports.com will be available for free, as will the Turner streams, if your cable, satellite, internet or phone provider has a TV Everywhere agreement with the company. Otherwise, you'll get stuck with the fee.

In explaining the move, Matthew Hong, senior VP and general manager of operations for Turner Sports, said he's not worried that they'll lose viewers because of the fee.  In an interview with Multichannel News, he said, "We're having the digital model match the television model, which is the TV Everywhere authenticated model for digital. We're not fearing a decline in [audience] numbers. The fact that we're making it available via Android and really making the tournament available anywhere people go on whatever device they want to use via TV, iPad, broadband, or mobile device ... the idea is actually to grow that number."

So ... what do you think?  Is Turner's new charge for streaming tournament games a good idea? Will it keep you from watching that way?  Share your thoughts in the comments section or on JDTVB's Facebook page.