Kick-off time for Premiership fans
FOOTBALL is back!
For some reason nobody can fathom, a lot of daft Irishmen – for it is a mainly male foible – are passionately invested in the fates of football teams from English provincial cities.
Why do we care what happens in places like Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, or in my unfortunate case, Leeds?
Alas we do. And for over 100 days of corona-induced shutdown we have been positively gagging to see how the 2019/2020 football season – suspended just as it was reaching a climax – will unfold? Will Liverpool become Premiership champions after 29 years ‘of hurt’? And will Leeds get back into the Premiership after 15 years that made Liverpool’s ‘pain’ seem like a party?
The great news is that sports fans are being wooed with a range of new TV package offers to coincide with the restart of the football season across the water. All 92 Premiership matches to be played are available to watch live on TV.
Sky Sports will show 64, BT Sport 20, while the BBC and Amazon Prime will screen four games each.
Sky’s free-to-air ‘Pick’ channel will screen 25 matches for nothing – if you have it. Sky’s remaining 39 are on its Sports package, which is available at €25 a month for six months – rising to €40 for the other six on a 12-month contract. Virgin subscribers can also get Sky Sports by paying a bit more.
A cheaper option, with far less commitment, is to sign up to Sky Sports via a NowTV monthly pass. The usual price is €39 a month, but it’s on special offer at €23 a month. Even cheaper is Sky’s mobile option for your
smartphone at €7 a month, which is a nice option if you want to watch ‘on the go’ – or while exercising.
Two of the BBC’s three remaining matches have been confirmed– Norwich vs Everton (June 24) and Southampton vs Man City (July 5).
Amazon’s remaining confirmed Premier League games are Crystal Palace vs Burnley (June 29), Everton vs Southampton (July 9) and Watford vs Newcastle (July 11). Amazon Prime costs €5.99 a month or you can register with its subsidiary streaming site Twitch.tv.
Sky subscribers will also be able to watch 30 Championship games – plus play-offs.
Championship clubs will also stream games live to fans. However, it’s expensive and can be messy to sign up to.
So I went with NowTV, which is cheap and easy to use. I’ll be tuning in at 12.00 today to find out how Leeds are doing...