Football on television: fans 'pay almost 60% more to watch all the important matches than in 2020' | American football

Football superfans are paying almost 60% more than five years ago to watch the 15 most popular tournaments and leagues, as the number of broadcasters and streaming services needed to follow them has increased from four to 10 in the last decade.

About ten years ago, football fans only needed a subscription to Sky and its sports package, BT Sport and the free-to-air channels ITV and BBC to watch the 15 most important competitions, including the Premier League, the English Football League, the FA Cup, the Champions League and the most popular European competitions such as Italy's Serie A, La Liga Spain and the Bundesliga of Germany and the MLS of the United States.

However, the rights to many of the competitions have since fragmented, partly driven by the streaming revolution. This has resulted in football fans now needing eight subscription services in addition to the BBC and ITV if you want to continue watching all the competitions.

New entrants to the market now include pay-TV broadcaster Premier Sports and the DAZN streaming services Amazon Prime VideoAppleTV+ and aggregator OneFootball, while the French Ligue 1 has its own direct subscription service.

Research by analytics firm Ampere Analysis found that the combined price to subscribe to the eight services needed to catch all the action increased by 57% between the 2019-2020 and 2024-2025 seasons, rising from £89.23 a month at £140.21.

“The fragmentation of club football television provision has reached its peak in the UK,” said Danni Moore, senior analyst at Ampere. “All the major leagues (outside the UK) are now available on different platforms in the UK, so the price of watching multiple leagues is increasing for fans.”

The research found that only 1% of football fans were interested enough to pay for all the services needed to keep up to date with all 15 competitions.

Just over two-thirds of fans were happy to be able to enjoy their football fix. register among the top three rights buyersSky, TNT Sports, which hosts content from the former BT Sport and is run by Warner Bros Discovery, and Amazon.

Between them, these three have the rights to the most popular competitions on pay television, the Premier League, the English league soccer leaguethe Champions League and the FA Cup, the latter of which the BBC broadcasts some matches through a licensing agreement with TNT.

For the 68% of fans willing to pay only for the three major pay-TV providers, prices have not increased as dramatically.

Ampere calculates the total monthly cost, including the necessary subscription to the basic service. Darling TV, has risen 14% in the last five years to £91.99.

“The price of these three services has increased more modestly over the past five years,” Moore said. “However, subscribers to these services may feel they are getting less value for their money as they have access to fewer football competitions than before.”

In an effort to keep football fans who may resist long-term pay-TV subscriptions, Sky and TNT Sports have moved to offer games through exclusive streaming platforms Now TV and Discovery+ at a cheaper price .

Ampere found that customers who watched football using only the streaming options offered by Sky, TNT and Amazon had managed to limit the increase in the amount they paid monthly to 5% over the last five years.

Similarly, superfans who wanted to watch all 15 tournaments on streaming services alone paid £111.20 a month (almost £30 cheaper than the £140 a month if they signed up for pay TV), although this had increased by 52% in the last five years because of the proliferation of services necessary to access all games.

According to Ampere, a quarter of fans now say they prefer to watch live sports only on streaming services.

Live sports have become increasingly crucial to keeping customers subscribed to pay TV as households evaluate how much they spend, as the cost of living has risen dramatically in recent years.

Ampere's survey of UK football fans found that 38%'s access to the sport was the only thing stopping them from canceling their cable or satellite TV subscription.