The new football season is almost upon us – barely ten seconds after the last one petered out. With news of Amazon snapping up rights to some Premier League football games in the UK, you might be wondering who you’ll have to pay to get your fix this season. Here’s our guide to where to watch Premier League football in 2018-19.
Who’s got the TV rights?
Even though Amazon did win a batch of Premier League games in this year’s auction, that deal doesn’t kick off until the 2019-20 season.
Instead, it’s as you were for the 2018-19 season, with Sky owning the lion’s share of rights, supported by BT Sport. The BBC has first dibs on the highlights on Match of the Day. Here’s the full breakdown of who’s got what and how you can watch it.
Sky
Sky has the rights to show 126 live games over the course of the season – which works out to roughly three games per week.
You can watch Sky games via various TV services: Sky’s own satellite broadcasts, Virgin Media and BT TV amongst others.
If you don’t want to pay a recurring subscription, you can pay for one-off passes to watch games on Sky’s streaming service, Now TV. Prices of the Now TV Sports passes have gone up sharply since last season – it’s now £7.99 for a 24-hour pass, £12.99 for a week-long pass, and £33.99 for a whole month. However, discounts and special offers on Now TV passes are common.
On the plus side, if you’re going abroad within the EU, Sky Now TV now lets you watch games while you’re away from home. Previously, watching outside of the UK was prohibited.
Sky will show the first game of the season, Manchester Utd vs Leicester, on Friday 10th August at 8pm.
BT Sport
BT Sport has the rights to show 42 live games this season, which are predominantly Saturday lunchtime or 5pm kick-offs.
Again, you can watch BT Sport via almost all of the major TV providers, including Sky, Virgin Media and BT TV itself, of course.
If you’re a BT Broadband subscriber, you can watch BT Sport on mobile devices – including large-screen iPads – for free. You have to register for this add-on with BT. Once registered, you can download the BT Sport app from the iOS or Google Play stores and log in with your broadband account details. Click here to find out how to sneakily watch BT Sport mobile on your TV.
BBC
The BBC has the rights to show Premier League highlights in the form of Match of the Day. You can watch this live on BBC One on Saturday and Sunday evenings or watch it live on the BBC iPlayer.
If you miss the live showing, Match of the Day doesn’t appear on iPlayer for catch-up until Monday, due to some daft rights restrictions. If you’re regularly out on a Saturday evening, set the Sky box or DVR of your choice to record the show on series link.
Now read this: is this the future of football on TV?
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