9 cheapest ways to watch Sky Sports
Sky Sports isn't known for being cheap. But don't give up hope of getting an affordable subscription just yet – we've found ways to lower the monthly costs.
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As a broadcaster of Premier League football, Formula 1, golf, tennis, boxing (... the list goes on), the range of sports on Sky Sports is hard to beat.
But, if you're on this page, we're assuming you know that the subscription can be pricey – at least when paid at full price.
Luckily for you, though, we've found deals that can save you £100s each year on a Sky Sports subscription.
Check out our YouTube video with loads more cheap and free ways to watch football online and on TV, including on Sky Sports and TNT Sports:
9 ways to save money on a Sky Sports subscription
Here are the cheapest ways to watch Sky Sports:
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Get a monthly sports membership from NOW
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While a package through Sky has a monthly cost of £35+ (prices below), a monthly sports membership from NOW gives you access to all 12 Sky Sports channels for £27.99 per month for six months. That’s a saving of around £42 across the six months.
With the sports membership, you’ll have access to bonus streams including EFL matches, F1 Race Control and tennis tournaments.
The subscription includes one month of free Boost or Ultra Boost. This lets you stream in full HD or Ultra HD and on two or three devices at once.
If you choose to continue to have the sports membership after the six months, it will still only cost you £34.99 per month, so the same as a Sky package, and the big bonus is you can cancel your membership at any time. Read the full T&Cs on NOW’s website.
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Combine Sky Sports with your broadband package
With Sky broadband, there’s the option to add Sky Sports to the bundle.
At the time of writing, you can get a Sky TV and broadband package for £35 per month for 24 months (new customers only). This includes 200Mbps full fibre broadband, Sky TV, Netflix with ads and Sky Stream.
For an extra £20 per month, you can add Sky Sports on a 24-month contract (but prices may change during this period). So, at the current price, this would cost £55 per month.
While £55 per month isn’t cheap, factor in the cost of a Netflix subscription and broadband.
As an example, let’s say you’re currently paying £25 on broadband and £5.99 on Netflix every month. By getting this package deal, you’d only be paying around £24 more each month to get access to Sky Sports and Sky Entertainment.
Especially if you reckon you’ll use Sky Entertainment, this could be a great way to save money on Sky Sports.
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Buy a Sky Sports day pass
Is there just one particular game you want to watch on Sky Sports? Don’t pay for a whole month’s subscription – get a day pass from NOW instead.
While writing this guide, we saw an offer to get a day membership of Sky Sports for £14.99. For 24 hours, this pass gives you access to all 12 Sky Sports channels.
If you only plan to watch one or two matches each month, it’s hard to find a better Sky Sports deal than this.
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Watch Sky Sports via Virgin Media’s Stream service
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If you already have a Virgin Media broadband package, you can get Flex as an add-on. It costs £5 per month and lets you subscribe to Sky Sports.
There are a couple of Sky Sports packages you could add to the Stream service:
- Sky Sports HD – From £31.75 extra per month
- Sky Sports HD & Cinema HD – From £39.25 extra per month.
Though these packages, combined with the Flex fees, currently work out more pricey than the Sky broadband option, they may be useful to know if you’re already tied into a Virgin Media Broadband contract. And as they are available on a 30-day rolling contract, you can pick and choose which months you think it’s worth the money.
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Look out for Sky Sports free trials
Free trials for Sky Sports aren’t always available, but they do occasionally pop up.
For example, we’ve previously heard of a four-week free trial of Sky Sports being offered to some Sky customers.
If we discover any more Sky Sports free trials, we’ll post about them on our deals page so keep an eye on it (link below).
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Watch on the Sky Sports app
The Sky Sports app, which is free to download, offers loads of exclusive videos, live blogs of all Premier League games and highlights immediately after full-time.
You can also live stream through the app, but only if you’re already a Sky customer.
However, if your parents have a Sky Sports membership, it’s possible to live stream all the Sky Sports channels included in their subscription through the app using their Sky ID. This is the case no matter whether their membership is through Sky, NOW TV or Virgin Media.
Up to six app users can be logged in to one Sky Sports account, but you can only usually live stream on one or two devices at a time. So if you and your parents have different tastes in sport, they may need some sweet talking!
If you’re not lucky enough to have parents with a Sky Sports membership, it’s still worth downloading the Sky Sports app for all the highlights and news.
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Haggle down Sky Sports prices on the phone
Call Sky to see if there are any good deals they can offer you.
The first price they quote you isn’t necessarily the lowest they’re willing to go, so have a go at haggling down the prices.
This tip is particularly good if you’re an existing Sky customer hoping to reduce your monthly costs. If you mention you’re thinking about ending your subscription, they might potentially offer you a discount to convince you to stay.
For new customers, it’s probably going to be harder to haggle. But it’s still worth trying – especially if you say you’ve found a better deal elsewhere (like one of the deals we’ve mentioned above!).
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Find a pub with Sky Sports near you
It’s pretty common for pubs to have Sky Sports, so this is a cost-effective way to watch the top games without splashing out on a subscription.
On Useyourlocal‘s website, you can find pubs near you with Sky Sports.
You could maybe get some friends together and plan a trip to the pub to watch sports. You’ll have the fun atmosphere of the pub combined with the big sports events on the TV, all for the cost of a pint (or two).
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Split the subscription costs with housemates
Once you’ve found a good Sky Sports deal, save money further by splitting the cost with your housemates.
For example, if you get the six-month sports membership from NOW, it will cost £27.99 per month for the household. Sharing the cost among a house of four will mean each person only spends £7 each month to watch Sky Sports.
And, of course, the more of you there are in the house, the cheaper it will be per person.
While shared living comes with challenges, this is a definite upside of flat sharing!
How much is Sky Sports?
The cost of Sky Sports varies depending on which package you choose, and which company you buy it from.
We’ve covered deals from places like NOW and Virgin Media. But, to give you an idea of the full cost of the packages, here are the current prices from the Sky Sports website:
- Sky Stream, Sky Sports, Sky TV & Netflix: £35 per month for 24 months (new Sky TV customers only).
The £35 per month package is the cheapest Sky Sports package we’ve seen on their website.
As we’ve seen, though, you can save money on a subscription by trying one of the above tips.
Now you’ve read this, discover more ways to save money on streaming services.
