Sky has just announced some aggressive new prices for the Sky Sports pass on Now TV.
For football fans who want to watch Premier League games for less, this is great news as you can stream live Sky Sports content £31.99/month in standard definition and on demand content at up to 720p HD.
OK, we know that it’s not the same as watching a game in Full HD, but if you want to do that with Sky TV, you’ll be having to pay a lot more than £31.99/month.
If you want to watch Premier League and UEFA Champions League games throughout from the 2015/16 season for less, here are the best deals available to you right now.
Sky Sports Monthly Pass with a BT Mobile SIM
The Now TV Sky Sports Pass gets you all of the Sky Sports channels – Sky Sports 1-5, Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports News HQ.
All of the BT Mobile SIM-only deals give you access to the BT Sport online portal that lets you stream content on your phone. You don’t have to be a BT Broadband or BT TV customer to get a BT Mobile SIM.
A Now TV Sky Sports pass currently costs £10.99/week, which is equivalent to £43.96/month.
When the Monthly Pass launches later this year, you’ll only have to pay £31.99/month for equivalent access.
The cheapest BT Mobile deal for non-BT customers costs £10/month.
Here’s how much you can expect to pay later this year once the Sky Sports Monthly Pass is live:
- Sky Sports Monthly Pass on Now TV: £31.99/month
- BT Mobile SIM: £10/month
- Total monthly cost: £41.99/month
Related: BT Mobile’s SIM-only deal is the cheapest way to get BT Sport yetThis is the least expensive way to watch Sky Sports and BT Sport content.
Drawbacks include the limited data allowance you get with that BT Mobile deal – if you’re streaming live games you’ll burn through that 500MB cap in no time at all. If you’re going to stream any games on your phone, stick to WiFi.
You also don’t have the ability to watch any BT Sport content on your TV. Though the BT Sport iOS and Android apps are Chromecast-compatible, you won’t be able to cast streams to your TV – unless you’ve got a BT Broadband service.
Note that unless you opt in to BT TV (which starts at £0/month extra) you’ll have to choose between BT Sport Lite (just BT Sport 1 on its own) or having to pay £5/month if you want to stream every BT Sport channel. Read our guide to BT Sport Lite for more information.
If you want to be able to easily watch BT Sport’s Premier League coverage on your TV, here’s your best option.
Sky Sports Monthly Pass with BT Unlimited Broadband
BT’s cheapest unlimited ADSL service – and if you’re going to be streaming live games, you’ll probably want an unlimited plan – is currently Unlimited Broadband.
This costs £7.50/month plus line rental. For your money you get download speeds of up to 17Mbps and limitless streaming that’s unaffected by any traffic management.
Line rental is currently charged at the standard rate of £16.99/month or, if you’ve got deep pockets, £183.48 for 12 months, which is equivalent to paying £15.29/month.
- Sky Sports Monthly Pass on Now TV: £31.99/month
- BT Unlimited Broadband: £7.50/month
- Standard BT line rental: £16.99/month
- Total monthly cost: £58.48/month
As you get a BT Broadband service with this deal, you’ll also have the option of adding the entry-level BT TV Starter service or free. Bear in mind that the basic BT TV service is pretty basic. It’s a YouView box without a hard drive, which means you can’t record anything you’re watching, but the time buffer feature does mean you can pause live standard definition TV for up to 30 minutes.
Despite there being no monthly cost for BT TV Starter, you will have to pay a one-off £35 activation fee. Depending on how bothered you are about recording, you might be better off shelling out £30 for a Chromecast instead.
You can get BT TV set-top boxes with hard drives in, but these will see you paying extra – for more details on BT Sport’s pricing structure, check out our feature here.
Sky Sports Monthly Pass with BT’s cheapest broadband service
If you absolutely want the cheapest BT Broadband package and you’re not bothered about unlimited usage, then you can save a bit of money by opting for bog standard BT Broadband.
This costs £4.50/month plus line rental. You’ll be able to access BT Sport’s live streams on your phone and watch them to your TV via Chromecast.
Bear in mind that you might exceed the 10GB data cap depending on how many matches you watch in a month – while it’s cheaper overall, if you stray beyond that limit, you’ll be stung with out of bundle charges to the tune of £5.60 per 5GB.
Data charges aside, here’s how here’s how everything will work out, with the Sky Sports Monthly Pass included:
- Sky Sports Monthly Pass on Now TV: £31.99/month
- BT Unlimited Broadband: £4.50/month
- Standard BT line rental: £16.99/month
- Total monthly cost: £53.48/month
Sky Sports Boost for £11/month with TalkTalk TV
From August 23 onwards, you’ll be able to get all Sky Sports channels from TalkTalk TV for £11/month, down from the usual £30/month price.
TalkTalk TV comes in two flavours – Essentials and Plus.
The Essentials service is TalkTalk’s entry-level TV service. You get a basic YouView set-top box with this that lets you access the same digital terrestrial channels you’d get with a Freeview HD box over an aerial as well as get extra channels like Sky Sports delivered over a broadband connection.
Essentials is currently priced at £7.50/month for the first three months, then £10/month after that.
The hardware you get with TalkTalk Plus TV gives you the same functionality, the only difference being it comes with a 350GB hard drive. This lets you record up to 200 hours of SD content and 80 hours of HD content. This costs £10/month.
You’ll have to pay line rental with each of these bundles, which is charged at either £16.70/month at the standard rate or £180.36/year.
Together, this would set you back £37.70/month if you went for Sky Sports (£11) plus either TalkTalk TV package (£10) and the standard rate of line rental. If you opted for Essentials TV, you’d pay a total of £35.20/month for the first three months.
You currently can’t get any BT Sport channels with TalkTalk TV. However, you can sign up for a BT Mobile SIM (from £10/month) which’ll let you stream content from BT Sport 1 on your phone or tablet.
Here’s how much you’d pay for everything in total, including the standard rate of line rental:
- TalkTalk TV Essentials introductory rate: £24.20/month for three months
- Sky Sports Boost: £11/month
- BT Mobile SIM: £10/month
- Total monthly cost: £45.20/month
When those three months are up/if you opt for Plus TV instead, here’s how much you’ll pay
- TalkTalk TV Essentials & Plus standard rate: £26.70/month
- Sky Sports Boost: £11/month
- BT Mobile SIM: £10/month
- Total monthly cost: £47.70/month
Do I need a Now TV box or a Chromecast?
You don’t need a Now TV box to watch Sky Sports on your TV, but they are convenient and at £10 they’re very cheap.
A Chromecast will set you back £30 and lets you do things like find YouTube, BBC iPlayer, Netflix and BT Sport content on your phone and cast it to your TV. The Now TV iOS and Android apps are also Chromecast-compatible as are a whole host of other sports services and entertainment options.
Basically, you’ve got two inexpensive options at your disposal if you want to watch Premier League football on your TV. One just gives you access to Sky content, the other gives you access to Sky content, BT content and a whole load more.
Alternatively, if you don’t want either of these and you’ve got a laptop, one sneaky workaround at your disposal is to pick up a cheap HDMI cable and connect your TV to your laptop. Job done.
Isn’t BT broadcasting a load of games for free on Freeview?
Yes. BT will be broadcasting a number of Champions League games – at least 12 – on Freeview via the forthcoming BT Sport Showcase channel.
While this will include coverage of every English and Scottish team competing in the Champions League, it won’t include every Champions League fixture. The jury’s out on whether BT will be showing any Premier League games on BT Sport Showcase as well.
Leave a Reply