Question
What are my alternatives to Sky for Premiership Football, and what’s best?
Submitted online
Our Answer
This is a tricky one to answer, as it comes down to exactly what you’re looking for from your TV service.
At a high level, your choices are:
- BT Vision
- Freeview (with Top Up TV)
- Virgin Media
We’re discounting Freesat (as it doesn’t offer Premier League football), and TalkTalk TV (as at the time of writing, new customers can’t sign up)
What Sky offers
Now, we appreciate you’re looking to move away from Sky, but it’s worth explaining what you could be losing:
- Sky offers Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and 4, plus Sky Sports News, plus 3 ESPN channels, 2 Eurosport channels and lots of channels not found elsewhere
- Sky offers the largest number of HD channels
- Sky uses a satellite dish, which offers the greatest coverage of the UK population, so is available to more people than rival services
That having been said, there are alternatives. Here we will outline the various pros and cons of each alternative
BT Vision
BT Vision combines Freeview with on-demand content over the Internet. BT Vision offers Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2 and ESPN
Where BT Vision does well:
- Sky Sports is cheaper than Sky with no long-term contract
- ESPN is FREE on some packages
- Large collection of on-demand TV shows and movies available
- Doesn’t need a dish
- Better UK coverage than Virgin
Things to be aware of with BT Vision:
- Received via a TV aerial. You need to be in a Freeview coverage area and have a good Freeview signal
- There is no Multiroom option (although you could get a cheap Top UP TV box for sport in a second room)
- There is no HD service (other than a few on-demand movies)
- You need to have BT Broadband and a BT phone line
Full details of BT Vision: BT Vision Sports Packages . Also, see our BT Vision Review
Virgin Media
Virgin Media offers digital TV over its cable network. Virgin offers Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, 4 and Sky Sports News, as well as ESPN channels and Eurosport channels
Where Virgin Media does well:
- After Sky, Virgin offers the largest number of Sports channels
- Virgin offers Sky Sports, ESPN and Eurosport channels in HD
- Large collection of on-demand TV shows and movies available
Things you need to be aware of:
- You need to be in a cable TV coverage area (not available in many parts of the UK)
- Customers normally have cable internet and phone from Virgin to get the best price
- Sky Sports 3 and Sky Sports 4 not available in HD
Full details: Virgin Media TV Service
Freeview with Top Up TV
With Top Up TV, you buy a cheap box and subscription card slot, and get Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2 and ESPN as well as the Freeview channels:
Where Top Up TV does well:
- Cheapest way to get Sky Sports 1, 2 and ESPN
- No long term contract
- No requirement for a phone line or broadband connection
- Doesn’t need a dish or cable TV
- Better UK coverage than Virgin
- Multiroom is an option with an extra box
Things you need to be aware of:
- No HD Sports channels (However HD channels from BBC, ITV and Channel 4 available with Freeview HD box)
- No on-demand content
- Received via a TV aerial. You need to be in a Freeview coverage area and have a good Freeview signal
Full details: Top Up TV Sports Packages
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