Cheapest ways to watch football on TV 2023
Love football but hate the huge subscription costs to watch games on tele? Us too. So we're revealing our tactics for the cheapest or free ways to watch live football on TV.
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There are two types of people in this world: those who love how much football is on TV and those who don't. We're guessing you're in the former group, and if so, you've come to the right place.
But no matter how much you enjoy watching football, the cost of subscribing to every channel showing the Premier League, Champions League, SPL, Football League and more can be eyewatering.
Read on to discover which channels have the TV rights to each competition and league this season, plus the cheapest (and even free!) ways to watch live football on Sky Sports and Amazon Prime Video. All legal, of course.
How to watch football on TV:
Which channels have football TV rights for 2023/24?
In 2023/24, the rights for showing live English, Scottish and European football on TV are shared between five broadcasters:
- Amazon Prime Video
- Sky Sports
- TNT Sport
- BBC
- ITV
Unfortunately, no single broadcaster has the rights to show every competition. Even the rights to individual competitions are sometimes split between channels too.
So, if you're wondering where to watch the Premier League, Champions League, Carabao Cup or any other major competition this season, this table breaks down which channels have which live matches (remember that highlights are often available on free-to-air channels, or online).
How many football matches does each broadcaster have?
| Broadcaster | Premier League | European Cups | FA Cup | Carabao Cup | EFL | SPL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 20 | - | - | - | - | - | |
 | 128 | - | - | 15 | 138 | 48 | |
 | 52 | All* | - | - | - | - | - |
 | - | - | 18 | - | - | - | - |
 | - | - | 20+ | - | - | - | - |
* TNT Sport broadcasts every single UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League fixture.
Cheap Sky Sports deals and offers
Although it doesn't quite have the monopoly on TV rights it once did, Sky Sports is still arguably the biggest sports broadcaster in the UK.
Sky Sports has more than double the number of English Premier League (EPL) games than any other broadcaster, including all first-pick matches (basically meaning they can show the best game every weekend) and the Monday and Friday night football slots.
The Carabao Cup and English Football League are also exclusively available to watch live on Sky Sports, and it's also the only place to watch live Scottish Premier League (SPL) fixtures.
Cheap NOW Sky Sports Memberships
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If you're a slightly more casual football fan, or you only fancy paying to watch your own team play, you might be better off buying NOW passes as and when you want to watch Sky Sports.
NOW (formerly NOW TV) offers three types of Sky Sports Passes:
- Sports Day – £11.98
- Sports Month – £34.99.
While some of these prices may seem a little steep, there are loads of ways to get discounts on NOW memberships. Make sure to check our guide to the best streaming sites in the UK.
For instance, at the time of writing, NOW had an offer running. Instead of paying £34.99 per month for Sports Month, you can get it for £26 per month instead. That also includes one month free Boost (which is £6 per month afterwards).
While these offers often change, it's definitely worth checking for offers before committing to paying full price.
Watch Sky Sports for free on Sky channels
In the past, Sky would sometimes double up and show a game on Sky One as well as Sky Sports. While this only used to happen on special occasions (like the first game of the season, or during the festive period), Sky One usually got at least a couple of games each season.
However, Sky One has now closed down and been replaced by Sky Showcase and Sky Max. Sky Showcase has shown a few games in the past, so it's worth keeping an eye on.
Often these games will also be broadcast on Pick. This channel is available on Freeview, which was also used to show some Sky Sports matches for free when fans weren't allowed into stadiums. However, this isn't always the case, so how can you watch Sky channels at a cut price?
Well, if you're ever lucky enough to have one of your team's games selected for Sky Max/Showcase coverage, or you just fancy watching whichever fixture they go for, you could make a significant saving by buying a different type of NOW membership.
Sky Max and Sky Showcase are both included in a NOW Entertainment Membership, and although these are only available in monthly form, the RRP is a pretty reasonable £9.99 a month – which is cheaper than the Sky Sports Day Pass, plus an extra 29 days thrown in.
There are loads of ways to get cheap NOW memberships, so to save us from repeating ourselves, check out our guide to streaming films and TV for less.
How to watch football on Amazon Prime for free
The 2023/24 season is the fifth year in which Amazon Prime Video has the rights to some Premier League fixtures.
The streaming service has the exclusive rights to 20 matches from the Premier League until 2024/25.
While 20 games may not seem like much, there were some seriously tasty fixtures included. The first batch features Brighton & Hove Albion vs Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace vs Wolves and AFC Bournemouth vs Southampton.
Six months of Amazon Prime for free
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It's one of our favourite deals, so forgive us if you're already in the loop – but as a student, you're entitled to a six-month free trial of Amazon Prime Student.
Amazon Prime Student has pretty much all of the same major perks as the standard Prime offering, including access to Prime Video. Amazon's Premier League games are available to watch on Prime Video at no extra cost, meaning if you're a Prime member, you'll be able to watch the football too.
This also means that, as long as you sign up for your free trial at the right time (in the 2023/24 season, this is six months or less before the December fixtures), you can watch Amazon's games for free. We repeat: you can watch Premier League football games on TV for free.
Again, though, you'll need to remember to cancel your free trial before the six months are up – otherwise, you'll automatically be charged either £47 or £4.49 (depending on whether it becomes a monthly or annual subscription).
You can only sign up for a free trial of Amazon Prime once, so if you've already used yours, we'd recommend signing up for one month of Prime at the beginning of December.
That way you'll be able to watch almost all of Amazon's Premier League games, and get free next-day delivery for your Christmas shopping, for the bargain price of £4.49.
How to watch BBC and ITV without a TV Licence
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Aside from showing the weekend's Premier League highlights on Match of the Day every Saturday and Sunday night, the BBC only has the rights to one competition this season. Fortunately, it's a cracker: the FA Cup, which this season it shares with ITV.
Typically the Beeb shows up to 18 FA Cup games each season, depending on how many replays there are in rounds one to four, while ITV will show at least 20.
Between them, they'll be showing at least one game per round from the first round onwards. At the business end of the season, the BBC and ITV will have one semi-final apiece, with both channels showing the final live.
While it's easy to think of the BBC and ITV as being free (they're available on Freeview, after all), you will need a TV Licence to watch both channels... except when you don't.
Despite TV Licensing making a big deal about the fact that you even need a licence to watch iPlayer, we've uncovered a totally legal loophole (as confirmed by TV Licensing themselves) which could let you watch live television without paying for a TV Licence.
Check out our guide to the TV Licence loophole for more info.
How to watch live football on TV for free
If you'd rather not pay to watch live football on TV and, for whatever reason, you're unable to use the above tips on watching matches for free, there is one more way to do it: go to a pub or bar that's showing the game.
There's a decent chance your students' union will screen games on Sky Sports and TNT Sports. If so, this is almost certainly the cheapest way to watch live football on TV (bearing in mind that the cost of a pint is usually less than at a normal pub).
If your SU hasn't forked out for Sky or TNT Sports, then beyond complaining that your tuition fees should be going to worthy causes such as this, your next best bet is to head to the pub.
Although they can be relied upon for pretty much anything else, Wetherspoon pubs almost never have Sky Sports or TNT Sports (this is partly how they manage to make everything else so cheap). Instead, you'll need to find another fine public house to watch the game – and that's where Fanzo comes in.
Fanzo (formerly MatchPint) is an handy little app that shows you pubs and bars in your area that are screening whichever sporting event you're interested in. What's more, Fanzo will also sort you out with a free pint when you get there!
The only downside is that in order to be featured on the app, pubs and bars have to supply Fanzo with the information they need. So, while it's fair to assume that the ones listed on the app are showing the game, there's no guarantee that places not listed on the app aren't showing it too.
And, although it's technically free to watch football at the pub, it's worth weighing up the cost of paying to watch it at home against the money you'll end up spending on drinks and eating out.
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