What football can I watch on Sky Sports?
Dan Howdle • February 19th, 2024
Sky Sports isn't exactly cheap, and the main reason for that is the numerous licenses Sky bids for and buys into to exclusively screen certain high-tier sports – perhaps most notably, Premier League football. But when you subscribe to Sky Sports, you'll get a access to a whole lot of leagues and matches beyond that. In this blog we're going to provide a complete overview of everything football-related Sky Sports has to offer.
Football screened in the UK (all channels)
A subscription to Sky Sports will provide you access to a metric tonne of football content. Folks will likely be most interested in the Premier League, but there is so, so much more. Before we get started talking about each league and championship on offer on Sky Sports specifically, let's look at a complete overview of what football you can watch live in the UK as a whole, and which services screens it.
Football screened in the UK by channel and matches shown
| League/Type | Sky Sports | TNT Sports | Amazon | BBC | ITV | FA's website (free) | DAZN | Viaplay | Apple TV |
| Premier League | 215 matches | 52 matches | 20 matches | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| UEFA Champions League | – | 189 matches (exclusive) | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| UEFA Europa League | – | 211 matches (exclusive) | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| UEFA Europa Conference League | – | 141 matches (exclusive) | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| EFL Championship | 328 matches (exclusive) | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| League One | 248 matches (exclusive) | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| League Two | 248 matches (exclusive) | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| EFL Trophy | 127 matches (exclusive) | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Carabao Cup | 93 matches (exclusive) | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Scottish Premiership | Up to 53 matches | – | – | – | – | – | – | 48 maatches | – |
| Women's Super League | 35 matches | – | – | 22 matches | – | 65 matches | – | – | – |
| Bundesliga | 200 matches | – | – | – | – | 106 matches | 107 matches | – | – |
| La Liga | – | – | – | 10 matches | – | – | – | 300 matches | – |
| Serie A | – | 38 matches (exclusive) | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Ligue 1 | – | 38 matches (exclusive) | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Vanarama National League | – | 45 matches (exclusive) | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| FA Cup | – | – | – | 18 matches | 20 matches | – | – | – | – |
| MLS | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | Highlights only |
Football shown on Sky Sports
As you can see from the table above, there is no single solution for getting all the football you may want to watch, which can be a bit frustrating for footy fans, many of whom will have to take out TNT Sports or some other service in addition to Sky Sports in order to see everything they want. This is due to a bidding system where TV providers have to bid for the rights every few year, most times ending in the content being split between two or more providers.
Here's a look at what football is offered specifically by Sky:
Premier League
Sky won the rights to screen a record 215 matches in the 2023/2024 season, up by 15 from the 200 matches it screened previously. TNT Sports comparatively gets a mere look-in, screening just 52 matches, and just to annoy everyone 20 matches are being screened on Amazon Prime Video.
Although Sky Sports has by far the most Premier League matches, if the ones you're missing are on TNT Sports or Amazon and you don't subscribe to those services, that still has the potential to be quite annoying. Sky Sports will be able to show match highlights from those other matches however, and of course will keep you up to date with the latest scores.
EFL Championship, League One, League Two and Carabao Cup
Thankfully, you won't have to deal with matches being divided up when if comes to EFL League One matches – Sky Sports has the exclusive rights and will be showing all EFL League games: Championship, League One, League Two and Carabao Cup.
Sky Sports won the rights to a crazy 1,059 EFL matches total (all of them), which splits down into 93 Carabao cup matches, 328 Championship matches, 248 League One and 248 League Two, as well as all 127 EFL Trophy ties.
Scottish Premiership
The Scottish Premiership is, for good or for ill, split between three different services: Sky Sports will screen at least 48 matches (up to 53), while streaming service Viaplay will offer a further 48. BBC Scotland has the rights to 20 matches which can be watched via iPlayer, but that's it for the Scottish Premier League, which as far as we can tell leaves quite a lot of games not being shown at all.
This is due to the fact that in the SPFL each club is responsible for selling the rights to its own games, creating a bit of a nightmare for those buying them (since they have to negotiate rights with each club). The end result is that about half the games aren't currently televised at all. We hope this situation improves in future.
Women's Super League
With the success in recent years of England's Lionesses, women's football has never been more popular or more in the limelight. Helping the WSL get the attention it deserves, Sky Sports shares the rights to show the matches. Sky will currently be showing 35 matches this season, with 22 matches being shown on the BBC and available via iPlayer.
The good news is that the remaining 65 matches are available to watch live, for free, via the FA's own website. Subscription-wise then, all you really need is Sky Sports and a TV license.
Bundesliga
Sky Sports has the rights to 200 games this season, with the rest available on Viaplay and DAZN (two more streaming services). It's unlikely many UK customers will want to watch every Bundesliga game in the season, but if at any point you need to dip your toe in to see how one of your own team's upcoming opponents is playing, you'll have to 50/50 chance of catching that match on Sky Sports. Otherwise you may need to dip into a temporary subscription to Viaplay or DAZN.
How to get Sky Sports
There are a wide variety of ways to get Sky Sports, some cheaper than others, some more convenient than others. Let's take a quick look:
| Subscription method | Sky Sports price | Contract length |
|---|---|---|
| NOW TV | £34.99 per month | 31 days |
| EE TV (BT) | £34.99 p/m, but only via NOW TV | 24 months |
| Sky Stream/Glass | £20 per month | 18 months or 31 days |
| Sky Q | £22 per month | 18 months |
| Virgin Media TV | From around £39.25 p/m* | 18 months |
Prices correct at time of writing, but may vary slightly over time
