Sky Charges a Fortune and Still Does Not Show Every Match
Sky Sports costs upward of £40 per month on its own. Add TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) for Champions League football and additional Premier League fixtures and you are over £65. Factor in the basic entertainment package, the box rental, and the 18-month contract you are locked into, and a full Sky sports setup easily exceeds £80 per month.
And here is the part that makes it sting: even after all of that, Sky still cannot show you every Premier League match. The Saturday 3pm blackout means your team's most common kickoff time is the one time Sky is legally not allowed to broadcast. You are paying top money for an incomplete product.
There has to be a better way. There is — several, actually. Let us go through every realistic option for watching the Premier League without Sky in 2026, starting with the official alternatives and ending with what we think is the best overall choice.
Option 1: TNT Sports via Discovery+
BT Sport rebranded to TNT Sports in 2023, and the content now lives on the Discovery+ app. If you have followed the rebrand, the coverage itself has not changed much — TNT Sports still holds rights to a selection of Premier League matches, all Champions League fixtures, all Europa League and Conference League matches, and a mix of UFC, WWE, rugby, and boxing.
What You Get
- A selection of Premier League matches (not all — Sky still holds the majority of live picks)
- All Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League matches
- UFC events, boxing, rugby, and cricket
- Access through the Discovery+ app on most devices
What It Costs
The TNT Sports add-on through Discovery+ costs around £30.99 per month. Some mobile operators and broadband providers include it in bundle deals at a reduced rate, but the standalone price is steep for what amounts to a partial selection of Premier League matches.
The Honest Assessment
TNT Sports is a solid product for Champions League football specifically. If European nights are your priority, it delivers. But for the Premier League alone, it only covers a fraction of the 380 matches per season. You still need Sky Sports for the bulk of televised matches, which defeats the purpose if you are trying to ditch Sky entirely. And like Sky, TNT Sports is subject to the Saturday 3pm blackout — no live football during that window.
Option 2: NOW TV (Sky Sports Without the Contract)
NOW TV is Sky's own streaming service, and it gives you access to all Sky Sports channels without the long contract or the dish on your roof. It is the most direct Sky alternative for people who want the same channels but with more flexibility.
Pricing Options
- Day Pass: £11.99 — access to all Sky Sports channels for 24 hours
- Weekly Pass: £25 — seven days of access
- Monthly Pass: £34.99 — full month of Sky Sports streaming
The Honest Assessment
The day pass is reasonable if you only want one specific match. But use it every weekend and you are spending nearly £50 a month — more than the monthly pass. The monthly pass at £34.99 is cheaper than a full Sky subscription, but it only covers Sky Sports channels. You still need TNT Sports separately for Champions League, pushing your total past £65 a month.
The bigger issue: NOW TV streams in HD at best. There is no 4K option. If you have spent money on a 4K television and you care about picture quality during live sport, the lack of Ultra HD is noticeable. And once again, the Saturday 3pm blackout applies. NOW TV uses Sky Sports feeds, so every restriction that applies to the full Sky box applies here too.
Option 3: Amazon Prime Video
Amazon has a growing presence in Premier League broadcasting. Each season, Amazon Prime Video typically broadcasts two full rounds of fixtures — usually a midweek round in December and another around a bank holiday. Every match in those rounds is available live, free for Prime subscribers.
What It Costs
£8.99 per month for Amazon Prime membership, which includes Prime Video alongside free delivery and other Prime benefits. Many households already pay for this regardless of football.
The Honest Assessment
If you already have Amazon Prime, this is free football. The production quality is excellent and the punditry is good. But the coverage amounts to roughly 20 matches per season out of 380. That is two weekends of football out of a 38-week season. You cannot rely on Amazon Prime as your primary way to watch the Premier League — it is a bonus, not a solution.
Option 4: Free-to-Air Television
The BBC and ITV still show live football, though not live Premier League action. The FA Cup is split between BBC and ITV with selected matches broadcast live. International matches — World Cup qualifiers, Nations League, friendlies — appear on free-to-air channels. And of course, Match of the Day on BBC One remains the flagship highlights programme every Saturday night.
What It Costs
Free (assuming you have a TV licence at £169.50 per year, which you need for any live TV viewing in the UK).
The Honest Assessment
Free-to-air is exactly what it sounds like — free. If all you want is highlights and the occasional cup match, it covers that. But there is no live Premier League football on free-to-air television. Zero matches. The Premier League sold all its live rights to Sky, TNT Sports, and Amazon. If you want to watch your team play live, free-to-air is not an option.
Option 5: The Pub
Let us be honest about this one because it is a genuine option that millions of people use every week. Head to your local, order a pint, and watch the match on the big screen with other fans. The atmosphere of a packed pub during a derby or a title decider is something you simply cannot replicate at home.
What It Costs
Nothing for admission — but the average Premier League fan spends around £20 to £40 per pub visit on drinks and food. Over a full season of Saturday matches, that adds up to £400 to £800 per year, which is surprisingly close to what Sky charges.
The Honest Assessment
For the social experience, the pub is unbeatable. If you are watching a big match with mates and want the noise and the energy, nothing else comes close. But as a practical way to watch every Premier League match, it falls apart quickly. You cannot watch midweek fixtures at the pub if you work early. You cannot watch three matches in a row on a Saturday. You cannot pause for the toilet. And critically, pubs are subject to the same 3pm blackout as Sky — they use Sky Sports and TNT Sports commercial feeds, so the Saturday 3pm matches are blacked out in pubs too.
Option 6: IPTV — Our Recommendation
IPTV is the option we recommend, and we will be upfront about why. It is the only alternative to Sky that gives you every single Premier League match — all 380 per season — including the Saturday 3pm kickoffs that every other option on this list is legally prevented from showing.
If you are not familiar with how IPTV works, we have a plain-English guide that explains the basics. The short version: it delivers live TV through your internet connection instead of a satellite dish, giving you access to channels from around the world on any device you own.
What You Get for Football
- Every Premier League match — all 380 per season, including every Saturday 3pm kickoff
- Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League — every match, every round
- FA Cup, Carabao Cup, and Community Shield
- La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and every other major European league
- Championship, League One, and League Two coverage
- International fixtures — World Cup qualifiers, Nations League, Euros
- Every boxing PPV and UFC event — included, no extra charge
- All in HD and 4K where available
Beyond football, you get over 45,000 live channels and 80,000+ on-demand films and series. But for this article, the football is the point — and on football coverage alone, IPTV is in a different league to every other option on this list. Visit our Premier League IPTV page for the full breakdown, or see our sports streaming page for everything beyond football.
What It Costs
From £6.67 per month on an annual plan. No contract — pay monthly if you prefer. Every plan includes all sports, all channels, the full on-demand library. No add-ons, no premium tiers, no extra charge for PPV events.
For a detailed side-by-side comparison of IPTV and Sky on price, channels, contracts, devices, and more, read our dedicated IPTV vs Sky comparison. It covers everything we will not repeat here.
The Saturday 3pm Problem — and Why It Matters
This deserves its own section because it is the single biggest factor for anyone who wants to watch Premier League football at home.
In the UK, there is a long-standing broadcasting regulation known as the 3pm blackout rule. It prohibits any UK-licensed broadcaster — Sky, TNT Sports, BBC, ITV, anyone — from showing live football that kicks off between 2:45pm and 5:15pm on a Saturday. The rule was introduced decades ago to protect match-day attendance at lower-league clubs. The theory was that if Premier League football were televised at 3pm on Saturday, fans of Championship, League One, and League Two clubs would stay home and watch the big clubs instead of going to their local ground.
Whether that logic still holds in 2026 is debatable. Lower league attendances have been rising steadily for years regardless of what is on television. But the rule remains in place, and it means that the most common Premier League kickoff time — Saturday at 3pm, when the majority of matches are played — is the one time slot that no official UK broadcaster can show live football.
This affects every option on this list except IPTV. Sky cannot show it. NOW TV cannot show it. TNT Sports cannot show it. Pubs cannot show it (they use Sky and TNT commercial feeds). Free-to-air cannot show it. Amazon does not hold rights to Saturday fixtures.
IPTV services that carry international broadcast feeds are not bound by the UK blackout. Broadcasters in the United States, Canada, Australia, the Middle East, and across Asia and Africa show every Premier League match regardless of kickoff time — they have their own broadcasting deals with the Premier League that have no 3pm restriction. When you watch a Saturday 3pm match on IPTV, you are watching an international feed from a broadcaster that is simply not subject to UK regulations.
For a lot of football fans, the 3pm blackout is the single biggest reason to switch. You are paying £80+ a month and you still cannot watch your own team play at the most common kickoff time. IPTV solves that completely, for a fraction of the price.
All Six Options Compared
| Feature | TNT Sports | NOW TV | Amazon Prime | Free-to-Air | The Pub | IPTV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | ~£30.99 | £34.99 | £8.99 | Free | £80-160+ | From £6.67 |
| PL matches | Some | Most (Sky picks) | ~20/season | None live | Sky/TNT picks | All 380 |
| 3pm kickoffs | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Champions League | Yes | No | No | No | If shown | Yes |
| 4K available | No | No | Yes (select) | No | Varies | Yes |
| Contract required | Monthly | No | Monthly | N/A | N/A | No |
| PPV events extra | Some | Yes | N/A | N/A | N/A | All included |
| Other content | Limited | Sky channels | Prime library | BBC/ITV | N/A | 45,000+ channels |
How to Get Started with IPTV for Premier League
If IPTV looks like the right fit, getting set up takes about ten minutes. Here is the short version — we will not duplicate the full setup instructions that already exist elsewhere on the site.
- Pick a device: An Amazon Firestick 4K (around £30-50) is the most popular choice among football fans. Any Smart TV, Android box, phone, or tablet works too. Visit our Firestick setup guide if you go that route.
- Try before you commit: Grab a free 24-hour trial and test it on a match day. No card details needed. If you can, try it on a Saturday at 3pm — that is the moment that shows you what IPTV actually offers.
- Choose a plan: If the trial convinces you (it usually does), pick a plan from the pricing page. Every plan includes all sports and channels — no add-ons needed.
- Install an app and start watching: We recommend TiviMate for the best experience on Firestick. Our guide on the best IPTV apps for Firestick covers the options in detail.
For questions about legality and how IPTV providers operate, our honest guide to IPTV legality covers everything transparently.
The Bottom Line
Every alternative to Sky has trade-offs. TNT Sports gives you Champions League but not the full Premier League. NOW TV gives you Sky Sports channels without the contract but at nearly the same price. Amazon Prime gives you a handful of matches per season. Free-to-air gives you highlights. The pub gives you atmosphere but costs more than you think.
IPTV is the only option that gives you every Premier League match — all 380, including every Saturday 3pm kickoff — plus Champions League, Europa League, every international league, and every PPV event. All for less than £7 a month with no contract.
The easiest way to decide is to try the free 24-hour trial on a Saturday afternoon when your team is playing at 3pm. Watch the match that Sky, NOW TV, TNT Sports, and the pub literally cannot show you. That is the moment that sells itself.
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Comments (5)
Tried NOW TV for about four months before switching to IPTV. The day passes were fine for one-off matches but I was spending thirty-five quid a month on the sports pass alone, then another twenty-five for TNT Sports through Discovery+. That is sixty quid just for football and I still could not watch my team at 3pm on Saturday. IPTV gives me everything for less than a tenner. Should have switched months ago.
Can someone explain the 3pm blackout rule properly? I have been paying for Sky Sports for years and I genuinely did not know there was a legal reason they could not show the Saturday afternoon matches. I just assumed they chose not to broadcast them. This is mad.
My partner watches football every single day of the week during the season. Not just Premier League — Champions League on Tuesday and Wednesday, Europa League on Thursday, La Liga and Serie A at the weekend. With IPTV he gets literally all of it. He watches about fifteen to twenty matches a week on the Firestick in the living room. Saturday is the big one though — he has three or four matches on from 12:30 through to the evening kickoff. The Saturday 3pm games were the reason we switched and now he would not go back to Sky if they paid him.
Which device is best for watching football on IPTV? I have got a Smart TV and a laptop but I have heard people say the Firestick is the way to go. Is it actually worth buying one?
Hi Mark! The Firestick 4K is the most popular choice among our football customers and for good reason. It handles HD and 4K sports streams smoothly, TiviMate runs brilliantly on it, and it costs about thirty quid. You can use your Smart TV directly with an IPTV app, but the Firestick with TiviMate gives you faster channel switching and a better programme guide — both of which matter when you are flicking between matches. Our setup guide at /setup/firestick walks through the whole process step by step.
