Want to watch Premier League matches live without a Sky Sports contract? It’s easier than you think, and totally legal so here’s how. The league will officially resume on 17 June as coronavirus rules are relaxed.
In the UK, no Premier League matches are typically shown for free on terrestrial TV channels like BBC or ITV. You’ll have to pay something, whether it’s on contract or a pay as you go basis in order to watch the full Premier League season in your own home, though there are ways to watch individual matches for free.
Many matches are shown on Sky, but there are always plenty of ways to watch the Premier League without a Sky Sports contract. For example, you can pay via Now TV fairly cheaply on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Games are also available on BT Sport and, for the first time this season, Amazon Prime Video.
Skip down to information on VPNs and how to watch the Premier League if you’re abroad.
Premier League fixture list and TV channel
Here’s the official Premier League fixture list for the 2019/20 season. The official schedule is an easy place to see what games are on what TV channels (if at all) – Sky Sport, BT Sport, and for a few days, Amazon Prime Video.
BT Sport said: “With the return of live Bundesliga, UFC and now the Premier League in June, we can confirm that as a gesture of goodwill we will also be offering customers a further bill credit to the value of 50% of their BT Sport monthly subscription.”
Customers who haven’t done this yet can apply for bill credit from 1 June at the BT Sport website.
Coronavirus update: Following a suspension due to the coronavirus outbreak, fixtures will officially resume on 17 June. Note that this is a provisional date “provided all safety requirements are in place.”
The good news for viewers is that all 92 remaining matches will be broadcast live, some of which will be free, but stadiums will remain empty of fans.
Matches will be shown across Sky Sports, BT Sport, BBC Sport and Amazon Prime as follows (exact fixtures are to be confirmed):
- 64 on Sky Sports (25 free-to-air via Sky’s free-to-air Pick channel)
- 20 on BT Sport
- 4 on Amazon Prime Video
- 4 on BBC Sport (free-to-air)
Here is the schedule for weekend games (times in BST)
- Friday: 20:00
- Saturday: 12:30, 15:00, 17:30, 20:00
- Sunday: 12:00, 14:00, 16:30, 19:00
- Monday: 20:00
Here is the schedule for mid-week games (time in BST)
- Tuesday: 18:00, 20:00
- Wednesday: 18:00, 20:00
- Thursday: 18:00, 20:00
How to watch the Premier League on Sky Sports
For many years Sky dominated Premier League broadcasts in the UK. It now shares duties with BT Sport, but Sky shows more matches in a season – 128 to be precise (two more than last season). These are split across various kick-off times on different days of the week.
If you are new to Sky you can purchase Sky Q from £22 per month and then an extra £18 for Sky Sports.
Click here to look at Sky Sports bundles.
How to watch the Premier League online
If you don’t want to commit to a long-term Sky contract, Now TV has a pay as you go Sky Sports Pass option that lets you pay for either a day, week or month of Sky Sports.
A day pass costs £8.99 and lasts 24 hours from purchase, so you’ll want to be canny about when you activate it to ensure you see the matches you want.
A week pass cots £14.99 and gets you (unsurprisingly) 7 days, while the month pass costs £33.99 per month and rolls on to the next month unless you cancel it. You can also get mobile month pass for £5.99 per month if you’re happy with five channels and watching on your smartphone screen.
A new addition is the Season Ticket which is 10 months worth for £199 – saving you over £140 vs the month pas.
Note that all Now TV packages just gives you access to Sky coverage but that means you can watch other sport such as Formula 1, too. You can’t use Now TV to watch BT Sport.
Click here to view Now TV’s Sky Sports Pass packages.
You can then watch the action for as long as you’ve paid for on your browser, on the TV app or on the mobile app.
How to watch the Premier League on BT Sport
BT Sport has successfully built a brand and muscled in on Sky Sports’ turf in the past few years. It has the rights to show 52 live Premier League matches. Not as many as Sky, but BT owns exclusive rights to all Champions League and Europa League coverage, so swings and roundabouts.
If you don’t currently have BT Sport or use BT Broadband then you can sign up to BT Broadband and get BT Sport for free. Alternatively, you can opt to get BT Sport added to your Sky package for £25 per month if you’re already a Sky customer.
If you’re already a BT customer then it’s pretty easy to add BT Sport.
BT Sport is also now offering Monthly Passes, considered to be a direct competitor to Now TV.
For £25 a month, you can now get unlimited access to BT Sport contract-free, including the 4K-enabled BT Sport Ultimate. The flexibility across devices remains, as it can be used on all the Smart TVs, consoles, tablets and phones that are available to paid subscribers. See all the details here.
How to watch the Premier League abroad
If you want to watch Premier League football from outside the UK then chances are you already have great options – 3pm UK time matches on a Saturday are usually shown abroad unlike in England, so you can probably see even more football than British viewers.
If you’re a British viewer going abroad and you still want to watch using your existing UK services, then you can also use a VPN to ‘browse from the UK’ and access Sky Sports, Now TV, or BT Sport as usual.
Nord VPN is one of our top recommendations, but you can check out our best VPN chart, which shows you some of the best services for accessing UK content from abroad.
Via Techadvisor