
There seems to be live football on TV every single day of the week. That is not a complaint, just an observation because that was not always the case.
Years ago, fans could only really watch live games if they were at the ground, but now football on TV is so common you can see why some fans treat it as a regular television show like Coronation Street or Waterloo Road.
This guide will explain where you can watch live football on TV and what matches you can expect to find.
The schedule above shows you what football is on TV today. It does not matter if you want to watch the Premier League, Ligue 1, Bundesliga or even Major League Soccer in America, this guide will direct you to where you need to be to watch today’s football on TV.
If a ball is being kicked between 22 men anywhere in the world, there is a strong chance that you will be able to watch it on TV.
Some of the biggest leagues in the world will be showcasing their talent live on TV. The obvious candidates include the Premier League, Champions League, Bundesliga and La Liga, but it is not just about domestic football.
International football plays a huge part in what football is live on TV. In the United Kingdom, the majority of England’s matches are shown on terrestrial television. Over the years, England’s friendlies have been on ITV and Channel 4.
When it comes to World Cups and European Championships, these tournaments are also free-to-air with BBC and ITV sharing the games. A lot of fans complain when ITV hosts an England game in the big tournament because it is believed they rarely win when the broadcaster is in charge.
Sky Sports hold the monopoly on live football and with 11 channels as well as Sky Sports News, you can see why. They have recently launched Sky Sports + which is a streaming service via the red button.
As part of that deal, over 1000 EFL games as well as Carabao Cup matches will be streamed live with every EFL team appearing on the channel over 20 times. More on this later.
Below is a brief breakdown of the leagues you can watch live on TV:
We are constantly being told that the Premier League is the best in the world, and that is why there are so many matches being aired live on TV.
It cannot be denied that the Premier League attracts the best players in the world. In the past we have seen the likes of Didier Drogba, Gianfranco Zola, Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Aguero, Jurgen Klinsmann and Dennis Bergkamp all grace the Premier League.
Even today, we have Erling Haaland, Bruno Fernandes, Mo Salah, Kevin de Bruyne and Son Heung-min, which shows the best players do want to come over to England and ply their trade.
That is great for us, because we get to watch them live on TV on a weekly basis.
The UEFA Champions League is the Holy Grail when it comes to club football. Every team worth its salt would love to win this tournament.
Unfortunately, not every club will get the chance to compete in the Champions League. Personally, we think more clubs get the chance than they probably deserve, but that’s for another time.
In the United Kingdom, all the matches from the UEFA Champions League will be featured on TNT Sports, while Prime Video will showcase some big matches and the BBC have their own highlights package.
Teams like Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool will more than likely be competing in this competition for a few years yet, but you also get to see the likes of La Liga giants Real Madrid and Barcelona as well as Bayern Munich and Paris Saint Germain.
The Championship in England is the gateway to heaven. Twenty four teams battle it out each season in a bid to gain promotion and rub shoulders with the likes of Haaland and Salah.
The Championship is probably more competitive than the Premier League in terms of winning it and getting out of the division.
Due to Sky Sports’ new streaming service, every Championship team will be featured live up to 20 times. That is brilliant, because up until now some football fans would probably ignore the Championship until the play-offs.
This way you can watch the whole season unfold and not only get involved at the business end of the campaign.
If you think the Championship is difficult to get out of, you should support a team from League One. There are so many big clubs in this tier of football that at least 10 teams could go up automatically.
Obviously only two can go up automatically and one through the play-offs, but the action is still good to watch.
Some fans criticise the level of skill in League One, but there are some quality players in this division with Alfie May, Jay Stansfield, Adam Phillips, Luca Connell, Ricardo Santos and Jason Kerr,
With all League One teams appearing numerous times on live TV, you will be able to see for yourself.
Back in the day, any sporting event that was covered live and broadcasted was available on terrestrial television. There are still some sports that are shown on BBC, ITV, Channel Four and Channel Five, but the majority now need a subscription of some sort in order to watch live football on TV.
Below are some of the important channels that you will need to watch all the best football live on TV.
It is safe to say that Sky Sports lead the way in the UK for showing football matches today on TV.
The broadcaster shows a minimum of 215 Premier League matches each season after agreeing a domestic rights agreement that was reported to be worth £6.7 billion. That is a lot of money to air football matches on TV - but we are very grateful.
When negotiating the last broadcasting deal, Sky Sports managed to secure four of the five packages that were on offer.
The Premier League is not the only football league that is shown live by the broadcaster. A new deal has seen more English Football League matches aired live, but more on that later. You can watch Major League Soccer in America, while the Bundesliga, Women’s Super League, Scottish Premiership and the Carabao Cup are all available live on Sky Sports.
We mentioned that Sky Sports claimed four of the five packages on offer when it comes to showing Premier League action. Well, TNT Sports claimed the fifth and final package.
There are plenty of rivalries when it comes to football, but the same can be said when it comes to broadcasters. TNT Sports are Sky Sports’ biggest rival in the UK.
TNT Sports are allowed to air 52 live Premier League matches on their channel throughout the season. The main bulk of their matches are the Saturday lunchtime kick-off games.
With TNT Sports only having 52 Premier League matches each season, they need to bulk up their schedule with more football fixtures live on TV.
Their main ace up their sleeve is showing live coverage of the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference. They have the women’s Champions League and Serie A football available live on TV as well.
ViaPlay acquired Premier Sports in order to expand their portfolio and be able to show more live sport on their streaming platform.
ViaPlay gained rights to show the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup, as well as La Liga, Liga Portugal, Coppa Italia, ViaPlay Cup, European Qualifiers and the UEFA Nations League.
NOW Sports is a streaming format that allows you to buy a membership package to be able to watch all 12 Sky Sports channels.
All 11 live sports channels and Sky Sports News can be streamed to your TV, mobile, tablet, computer and other devices.
This allows customers to watch the football matches they want to. Any game from the Premier League, Championship, League One or League Two will be available in this format. Customers can sign up for 24 hour access or on a monthly basis.
Despite the number of subscription channels showing live football on TV, we are still able to watch live coverage of some football on terrestrial television.
There is not as much as we would like but that is the world we live in.
The BBC have a deal in place to show one Women’s Super League match live each week, as well as the Women’s FA Cup. Live international matches are also available on the BBC. Live coverage of tournaments like the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship will also be live on BBC.
ITV were another broadcaster that saw their live football slashed once Sky Sports appeared.
They have recently agreed a deal, along with the BBC, that will see them broadcast live coverage of the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025.
The 16-team tournament will see the matches shared between BBCand ITV, with the final being shown on both channels.
ITV and their sister channels like ITV 4 and ITVX will also show UEFA Nations matches live on TV or their mobile app.
Channel 4 have had plenty of live football over the years, including live England matches.
At the moment, there is no specific deal in place to show any England matches, but the Wales equivalent will show live Wales matches as well as the Women’s Welsh Premier League and the Welsh Premier League.
Sky Sports have launched a new streaming channel that will see over 1000 EFL matches being streamed live each season.
The £895 million deal which runs from the 2024/25 season until the 2028/29 campaign will see 1059 matches from the Championship, League One and League Two be broadcast live.
The games will be streamed live via Sky Sports + which is their new streaming format that can be watched on television, mobile phones, tablets and computers.
Here is a breakdown of the deal:
It is believed that each EFL club will feature on this new channel at least 20 times each season. That is massive exposure for the lower league clubs, plus it showcases more talent to a wider audience.
From a selfish fans point of view, you will be able to do your own scouting mission whenever your team is linked to a new player. Instead of seeing snippets of players on social media, there is a strong chance that the player will be in action at some point in the near future.
This deal is brilliant for fans of EFL teams. The cost of football continues to rise, and although we do prefer to watch football matches live at the stadium, this is the next best thing if you cannot get to see your team live.
Football still remains one of the most popular sports when it comes to betting, that will never change.
You can bet on every football league in the world at the best betting sites in the UK, and with the live in-play function becoming more and more popular, football betting is fun to explore.
The best UK bookmakers have plenty of markets available for football. These include match winner, both teams to score, first, last and anytime goalscorers, Asian handicap betting, most corners in a game and even most disciplinary cards issued inside 90 minutes.
If it can happen on the pitch, then you will be able to bet on it.
Here is a brief look at one of the best betting sites that will allow you to bet while watching live football on TV.
Bet365 is not only one of the best UK bookmakers online for sport, but they are highly ranked for football as well.
The Bet365 sign-up offer is not one of the most amazing bonus offers in the UK, but it is reliable and straight to the point.
New customers need to create a new Bet365 account and then deposit and bet £10 in order to receive £30 in free bets. The free bet credits can be used on football.
The live in-play market makes Bet365 one of the best in-play betting sites. It is not just for the odds and markets available but also for their live streaming system.
If for some reason you cannot watch your sport on TV legally, you can sign up to a site like Bet365 and use their live streaming system. It is not rare to find live streaming on online betting sites.
The bills stack up pretty quickly these days, so some households have started to prioritise more domestic items rather than things like live subscription television.
Watching live football on TV does not have to break the bank. If it is just football that you want to watch, you can do that by just buying the channel that shows all the football.
Here is a brief breakdown of how much it will cost monthly to watch live football on TV. Prices may vary.
Having a Sky subscription can work out to be very expensive. If you are working on a budget, take a look at the offers they have and seriously figure out which channels you will use frequently.
They have a TV bundle available which allows customers to have all 12 sports channels and Netflix for a price of £46 per month, while if you just want to watch sport, that package will cost £27 per month on top of your initial subscription price.
Now we know there are some people out there who just like football and are not interested in any other sport, so you can pay for the Sky Sports Premier League channel for £15 per month.
TNT Sports is the biggest competitor to Sky Sports, but you will need a Sky or Virgin Media subscription in order to watch live football from TNT Sports on your television.
It depends on who your major subscriber is to how much you will pay per month for TNT Sports.
If you are a Sky Sports subscriber, you can get TNT Sports for an extra £28 month. With this subscription, you will be able to watch every UEFA Champions League matches and a selection of live Premier League games.
If you are signed up with Virgin Media, then having TNT Sports on your TV will cost customers as little as £16.20, but that could increase depending on what else you wish to add to your subscription.
We have already covered how much customers would pay to watch live sport on TV with NOW Sports, but this guide is about how to watch football live on TV
There is no extra package available just to watch football. If you want to watch football, you will sign up to a package that sees you get all 12 sports channels.
Customers will pay £34.99 per month to get all 12 channels. A contract is not needed and you can cancel at any time.
NOW Sports TV also has a 24 hour pass. This is a one off payment of £14.99 that will see customers receive all the sports channels for 24 hours.
Premier Sports customers can buy a monthly subscription of a one-off yearly price to watch live football on TV.
Customers can gain access to live football, ice hockey, GAA and motorsports for £9.99. An offer with Premier Sports sees customers get the first month free and then £9.99 thereafter.
Premier Sports customers who wish to pay the annual price of £99.00 per year can do so.
Having subscriptions to watch live football on TV can be very expensive - but everything is at the moment. There is a way where you can watch football live for next to nothing.
Live streaming sport is as popular as it has ever been and some of the best UK bookmakers have deals in place for customers to watch live football.
Bet365 prides itself on their live streaming service. They stream a lot of sports including football, horse racing, cricket, tennis, rugby league and table tennis.
They do not have deals in place to stream the likes of the Premier League, but you can watch top class action from La Liga in Spain, the German Bundesliga, Ligue 1 in France and Italy’s Serie A.
It is a cheaper option because all you need is a funded account at Bet365, Not all streams will have live commentary, but sometimes you just need the visual pictures.
Other betting sites that have live streaming functions include BetMGM, Unibet, Betfred and Ladbrokes.
We have already mentioned that not everyone likes all sports and they will just prefer to watch live football and nothing else.
This guide is perfect for fans like that. They do not have to search through a full list of sports just to find the match they want to watch.
This guide allows you to know which football match is live on TV and where you can watch it. With the amount of channels now available, the game you want to watch will be on somewhere.
The introduction of Sky Sports + is a massive plus. Supporters of EFL teams are able to watch their football team live on TV at least 20 times per season. That is huge for football fans all over the UK.
Yes. Tournaments like the World Cup and European Championship will be shown live on terrestrial TV, but if you want to watch the likes of the Premier League and Champions League, then you will need a paid subscription with Sky Sports or TNT.
The new Sky Sports + channel sees a wide range of sports - including football - streamed live via the red button. Even though the action is streamed, it will be available as a physical channel on your television.
As long as you have a paid subscription with a legitimate broadcaster, then watching football live on TV is perfectly legal.
Most football fans will have a monthly subscription with Sky or Virgin Media in order to have the correct sports packages. However, NOW Sports allows customers to buy a 24 hour pass for a select price and you will have all 12 Sky Sports channel at your fingertips.
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