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How can I watch Sky Sports?

How can I watch Sky Sports on Sky, Virgin Media, BT TV and TalkTalk TV? Can I get it on Freeview and can I watch online? 

The answers to all of those questions are as follows; easily if you’ve got the money, not really and yes. Our guide below explores all of the options. Sky Sports, long the home of the English Premier League, is not just available to Sky TV subscribers. 

Though with Sky you get access to benefits like Sky Go (watch matches on your phone) Sky Remote Record (the ability to set Sky+HD recordings remotely) and the Sky Sports for iPad app, you can get Sky Related: How can I watch BT Sport on Sky, Virgin Media, Freeview, TalkTalk TV and YouView?Sports on every pay TV platform in the UK. 

Even if you can’t get or don’t want a pay TV service, you can now watch online (legally) with a Now TV subscription. There’s never been more ways to watch Sky Sports content at home or on the go. 

Here’s how to get all 126 of Sky’s Premier League football games on your TV, tablet and phone. 

How can I watch Sky Sports on Sky, Virgin Media, Freeview, BT Vision, TalkTalk and YouView?

Because TV providers change their prices and launch introductory rates, we’re listing all of the standard prices below first and foremost, mentioninig introductory prices where appropriate. Line rental (where required) is listed outside of tables. 

All pricing information is correct at the time of writing (07/08/15). 

Click the links below to jump to your preferred provider. 

Sky TV

Sky price rises June 2016: How are Sky+ and Sky Q customers affected?With Sky TV, you have the option of taking either Sky Sports 1 on its own for £14/month on top of your Sky+ or Sky Q subscription, or taking the full Sky Sports package – which gets you Sky Sports 1-5 plus Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports News HQ. 

As of June 1, 2016 the price of the Sky Sports bundle of channels is going up from £25.50/month to £27.50/month.  

Prices for Sky+ and Sky Q susbcriptions will also be increasing at the time time; from June onwards these will start at £22.50/month and £44/month. 

Sky Sports with Sky+

In order to get Sky Sports with Sky+ you’re required to take one of the three basic bundles of channels. Sky+ bundles start at £22.50/month for the Original Bundle, £32/month for the Variety Bundle and £38/month for the Family Bundle. 

If you want to get any of the Sky Sports channels in HD you’ll need to take the top-tier Family Bundle of channels (£38) and the HD Pack (£6). 

Sky Sports with Sky Q

HD channels are included with Sky Q as standard. The cheapest Sky Q package is the basic Sky Q Bundle which costs £44/month. With the cost of Sky Sports combined, this works out at £71.50/month – the same as what you’d pay for the Sky+ Family Bundle. 

Sky Sports 4K Ultra HD demo: First impressionsThe top level Sky Q Silver bundle costs £56/month. With Sky Sports added, this comes to £83.50/month. 

With Sky+, you have the choice of two set-top boxes; an entry-level Sky+HD box which comes with a 500GB hard drive (185 hours of SD, 60 hours of HD) or a Sky+HD box with a bigger 2TB drive (1,180 hours of SD, 350 hours of HD). 

The 500GB Sky+HD box is included for no extra charge. There’s a one-off £149 fee for the 2TB version. Both set-top boxes come with WiFi and Ethernet, allowing you to connect to your router and access Sky On Demand services. 

The entry-level Sky Q Bundle features a set-top box with a 1TB hard drive, which lets you record up to 150 hours of HD programmes. The set-top box you get with the Sky Q Bundle has a 2TB drive (350 hours of HD recording) and is also 4K-ready, meaning you’ll be able to (eventually) pick up Sky Sports in 4K

Sports Packages Total Monthly Cost
Sky+ Original Bundle (£22.50) + Sky Sports (£27.50) £50/month
Family Bundle (£38) + Sky Sports (£27.50) + HD Pack (£6) £71.50/month
Sky Q Bundle (£44) + Sky Sports (£27.50) £71.50/month
Sky Q Silver Bundle (£56) + Sky Sports (£27.50) £83.50/month

Virgin Media 

Virgin Media adds first year discount to broadband and phone Big BundlesSky Sports is available in SD and HD with all Virgin TV packages. The price of Sky Sports on Virgin TV depends on which TV service or bundle you pick – in some cases you’ll get Sky Sports thrown in for no extra cost. Let’s examine all those packages now. 

Virgin TV on its own starts at £20/month for the More TV. This is strictly a TV on its own service, there’s no broadband or calls or anything else, so there’s no extra charge for a Virgin phone line. 

For this, you get a TiVo box with either a 500GB drive which lets you record up to 250 hours of SD content and 50 hours of HD programmes. 

There’s also the option to take a TiVo box with a 1TB drive, which lets you record up to 500 hours of SD programmes or 100 hours of HD.

While the monthly price is the same regardless of which TiVo box you go for, you’ll need to pay a one-off £49.95 fee if you want the 1TB box. 

As of June 1 2016, Sky Sports will cost £31.75/month for all the channels – that’s Sky Sports 1-5, Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports News HQ. 

If you want to watch games in HD, you’ll need to pay an extra £7/month. 

At its very cheapest, Sky Sports on Virgin TV will cost you a grand total of £51.75/month. 

Sports Packages Total Monthly Cost
Virgin More TV with TiVo (£20) + Sky Sports 1 (£31.75) £51.75/month
Virgin More TV with TiVo (£20) + Sky Sports 1 (£31.75) + HD (£7) £58.75/month

Sky Sports with Virgin Media Big Bundles

Virgin line rental costs £17.99/month or £184/yearThe cost of Sky Sports changes when you’re taking out one of Virgin Media’s Big Bundles. 

The Big Kahuna bundle (up to 200Mbps unlimited broadband, 230 digital TV channels and unlimited weekend landline calls) will be also able to add the Sky Sports Collection for the lower rate of £19/month for the first 12 months and £30.50/month thereafter. 

The Big Kahuna bundle costs £42/month for the first year then £55/month for the last six months. On top of this, you’ll have to pay for Virgin Phone line rental, which is charged at either £17.99/month or £184 for 12 months’ worth. 

If you want to watch any games in high definition, then you’ll need to pay the £7/month HD premium on top of that. 

If you were thinking of taking BT Sport as well, you might be better off going for the Big Kahuna Sports bundle not only is the price of Sky Sports and the HD Premium included in this, the normal £18/month fee you’d pay for BT Sport on Virgin TV is also included. 

The Virgin Media Big Kahuna Sports bundle £61/month for the first 12 months then £85.50/month for the last six, plus line rental. 

Sports Packages Monthly Cost (first 12 months) Monthly Cost (last six months)
Big Kahuna (£42-£55) + Sky Sports Collection (£19-£35.50) + Virgin Phone line (£17.99)  £78.99/month £108.49/month
Big Kahuna (£42-£55) + Sky Sports Collection (£19-£35.50) + Virgin Phone line (£17.99) + HD (£7) £85.99/month £115.49/month
Big Kahuna Sports (£61-£85.50) + Virgin Phone line (£17.99) £78.99/month £103.49/month

BT TV 

BT line rental and line rental saver jumping up in 2016In order to get Sky Sports with BT TV, you’ll need to be able to get BT Infinity, BT’s FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet)-based service in your area. 

According to BT, this is available to over 25 million premises across the UK, so there’s a good chance you can get this. 

The cheapest BT Infinity 1 package currently costs £10/month (plus line rental) for a service that gives you downloads of up to 52Mbps and a 25GB data cap. 

The least expensive BT Infinity 1 package with unlimited downloads costs £20/month plus line rental for the same top speeds and weekend landline calls included. 

A £49 activation fee applies to all BT Infinity services. 

The current standard rate of line rental which BT charges its broadband customers is £17.99/month. Subscribers have the option of forking out for a year’s worth of line rental in one go by paying £194.28, which saves you £21.60. 

As of July 3, the standard monthly rate of BT line rental will go up to £18.99/month while the 12-months-in-one-go option will cost £205.08. 

Sky Sports on BT TV

BT TV offers you the TV Starter service for no monthly cost. This gives you a basic set-top box which gives you all of the same channels you’d get on Freeview HD plus extra channels and catch-up content delivered over the broadband connection. The TV Starter is driveless, so you won’t be able to record any games. 

If you want to be able to record games, you’ll need to sign up for an Entertainment Plus subscription, which costs £10/month and comes with a YouView box with a 500GB drive (300 hours SD, 125 hours HD). 

You can only get Sky Sports 1 and 2 with BT TV and you can only get these together as a single package. 

Sky Sports 1 and 2 in SD costs £22/month. Sky Sports 1 and 2 in SD and HD with BT TV costs £27/month. 

Here’s how everything adds up: 

Sports Packages Total Monthly Cost
BT Infinity 1 (£10) + BT TV Starter (£0) + Sky Sports SD (£22) + line rental (£18.99) £50.99/month
BT Infinity 1 (£10) + BT TV Starter (£0) + Sky Sports SD & HD (£27) + line rental (£18.99) £55.99/month
BT Infinity 1 (£10) + BT TV Entertainment Plus (£10) + Sky Sports SD (£22) + line rental (£18.99) £60.99/month
BT Infinity 1 (£10) + BT TV Entertainment Plus (£10) + Sky Sports SD (£27) + line rental (£18.99) £65.99/month
BT Infinity 1 Unlimited (£20) + BT TV Starter (£0) + Sky Sports SD (£22) + line rental (£18.99) £60.99/month
BT Infinity 1 Unlimited (£20) + BT TV Starter (£0) + Sky Sports SD & HD (£27) + line rental (£18.99) £65.99/month
BT Infinity 1 Unlimited (£20) + BT TV Entertainment Plus (£10) + Sky Sports SD (£22) + line rental (£18.99) £70.99/month
BT Infinity 1 Unlimited (£20) + BT TV Entertainment Plus (£10) + Sky Sports SD (£27) + line rental (£18.99) £75.99/month

TalkTalk TV 

TalkTalk line rental costs £17.70/month or £191.60/yearTalkTalk TV has a six channel Sky Sports package called Sky Sports Boost, consisting of Sky Sports 1-5 and Sky Sports F1, in standard definition only. 

The standard price of the Sky Sports Boost is £30/month. Unless you were able to sign up for TalkTalk’s £11/month cut price deal last August, you can currently take advantage of a special offer that gives you the first six months at half the usual price. 

To get TalkTalk TV you’ll need to be a TalkTalk broadband customer signed up to the TalkTalk Essentials or Plus packages. 

Essentials TV, comes with a driveless YouView set-top box, costs £7.50/month for the first six months and £10/month for the remaining 12 months.  

Plus TV costs £10/month for the first 12 months and £20/month for thw last six. The Plus TV set-top box comes with a 350 GB hard drive (200 hours SD, 80 hours HD). 

Both of the set-top boxes give you access to digital terrestrial channels delivered through your aerial and extra pay TV channels delivered over a broadband connection. 

You’ll need to take TalkTalk line rental, which currently costs either £17.70/month or £191.60 up front for 12 month’s worth.

Sky Sports isn’t currently available in HD from TalkTalk TV.

Here’s how everything adds up: 

Sports Packages Total Monthly Cost
TalkTalk Essentials TV (£7.50-£10) + Sky Sports Boost (£30) + line rental (£17.70) £55.20-£57.70/month
TalkTalk Plus TV (£10-£20) + Sky Sports Boost (£30) + line rental (£17.70) £57.70/£67.70month

Freeview, YouView and Freesat

Related: The cheapest Sky Sports and BT Sport deals and How to get BT Sport on FreeviewThere’s currently no way to get Sky Sports channels on your Freeview or Freesat set-top box or TV or YouView box, unless you’ve got BT TV or TalkTalk TV. 

If you’ve got a smart TV, Chromecast, Apple TV or a Now TV Box you can sign up for Now TV, which lets you stream all of the Sky Sports channels over a broadband connection. 

Depending on how frequently you watch sports, you can opt for a 24 hour daily pass for £6.99, a weekly pass for £10.99 or a monthly pass for £31.99.

Live streams are currently only available in SD and catch-up content maxes out at 720p HD. Even if you’ve got a broadband service capable of comfortably handling 1080p Full HD streams, you’re not able to stream live games in HD from Now TV. 

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