In years gone by, ensuring you had the best TV package for sports was simple. Sky Sports had all of the football, as well as most of the other events that were not available on free-to-air TV. The two main choices for households were to access pay-TV through satellite or cable providers, with little difference in price between the two.
Nowadays, it’s far trickier to ensure you have the best deal, not to mention the fact that you need to be sure the package you have gives you access to the sports that you love.
In order to watch all televised football, for example, you need access to Sky Sports Main Event, as well as the Premier League, and Football channels. Additionally, BT Sport covers a range of games, with Amazon the third top-flight football broadcaster in the UK, so make sure you have an Amazon Prime subscription for their game days. Sky Sports are also home to golf, domestic UK cricket competitions and share live F1 coverage with Channel 4.
With the 20 – 21 football season set to be played behind closed doors until at least October, games will be shared across all platforms in a similar manner to the end of last season.
BT Sport emerged from the ashes of the failed Setanta Sports experiment in the UK. Launching in 2013, BT Sport has firmly established itself as the home of European club football, with exclusive UK coverage of UEFA Champions’ League and Europa League matches. BT Sport also has rights to Rugby, Australian home cricket matches and from the beginning of 2020, became the home of WWE in the UK, amongst other sports.
If you are passionate about all sports, it would make sense to get yourself a subscription to both BT Sport and Sky Sport’s packages, but if you are a fan of one or two sports, in particular, subscribing to the channels where your sport is broadcast should save you some money across the season.
Ultimately, it is impossible to provide a single answer to the question, “which is the best sports package,” as for everyone who is enthralled by football, there is someone else who would rather be watching rugby league, NFL or be absorbed by a low scoring test cricket match.
The answer would have to depend on what exactly it was you were looking for, and how much you are willing to spend. If you would like to be able to watch any and all broadcast sport, the best carrier is probably Virgin Media, whose Full House bundle comes with all BT Sport channels included as standard, with Sky Sports purchased as an additional extra. The Virgin VIP bundle comes with both sports services added as standard. The downside to these comprehensive options is that they do both come with a fairly high subscription fee.
The best value sports package is probably found at TalkTalk. Delivered through its YouView boxes, TalkTalk TV provides great value, with fairly low-cost basic TV packages available. Sky Sports (in addition to SKY Movies and other premium channels) is available as a monthly ‘bolt-on’, which can be cancelled if there are months when it is not required, as well as reactivated when there are events that you wish to see. It is also possible to view BT Sport channels via TalkTalk, this will need to be arranged with BT once your TalkTalk service is up and running.
Alternatively, many people have turned to Now TV’s flexible approach to offering Sports Coverage. Now TV is operated by Sky and allows customers to access sports as and when you like. Sports coverage is purchased through a Pass system with Now TV, with three options available. Similar to TalkTalk’s Bolt-On approach, these can be cancelled at any point, with no long term subscription required. The Sky Sports Day Pass is perfect for people who want to watch a particular match, whilst the Sky Sports Week Pass gives you seven days of uninterrupted coverage. This is a great option for those who want to watch a particular test match or golf tournament for example. The Sky Sports Month Pass lasts for an entire month, giving ultimate access to Sky’s coverage. In Spring 2020, BT Sport passes became available through Now TV.
As you may expect, deals may become available at various points of the year, providing an incentive to customers for signing up. These may just be for sports channels or could include a broadband deal, home phone contract or even mobile phone. The adage that the more you purchase from a provider, the better deal you may end up getting generally speaking rings true, but with premium channels such as sports you may not benefit much from this. Similarly, signing up for an extended contract with channels may save you money in the long run if you are committed to having sports coverage all year round.
