Football superfans are paying almost 60% more than they were five years ago to watch the 15 most popular tournaments and leagues, as the number of broadcasters and streaming services required to follow them has increased from four to 10 over the last decade.
Ten or so years ago, football fans needed only a subscription to Sky and its sports package, BT Sport and the free-to-air channels ITV and the BBC to be able to watch the top 15 competitions, including the Premier League, English Football League, FA Cup, Champions League as well as the most popular European competitions such as Italy’s Serie A, Spain’s La Liga and Germany’s Bundesliga and the MLS in the US.
However, since then the rights for many of the competitions have fragmented, in part fuelled by the streaming revolution. This has resulted in football fans now needing eight subscription services alongside the BBC and ITV if they want to keep watching all the competitions.
New players in the market include the pay-TV broadcaster Premier Sports and the streaming services DAZN Amazon’s Prime Video, AppleTV+ and the aggregator OneFootball, while France’s Ligue 1 has its own direct subscription service.
Research by the analytics firm Ampere Analysis found the combined price to subscribe to the eight services needed to catch all the action increased by 57% between the 2019-20 and 2024-25 seasons, rising from £89.23 a month to £140.21.
“Fragmentation of club football TV offering has reached a peak in the UK,” said Danni Moore, a senior analyst at Ampere. “With all the major [non-UK] leagues now available on different platforms in the UK it follows that the price of watching multiple leagues is increasing for fans.”
The research found only 1% of football fans were keen enough to pay for all the services required to keep up with the 15 competitions.
Just over two-thirds of fans were happy to get their football fix by signing up to the top three rights-buyers, Sky, TNT Sports – which houses the former BT Sport content and is run by Warner Bros Discovery – and Amazon.
Between them, these three have the rights to the most popular competitions on pay-TV, the Premier League, English Football League, Champions League and the FA Cup, the latter of which the BBC broadcasts some matches through a licensing deal with TNT.
For the 68% of fans happy to pay for only the three main pay-TV providers, prices have not risen as dramatically.
Ampere estimates the total monthly cost, including the necessary subscription to basic Sky TV, has increased by 14% over the last five years to £91.99.
“The price of these three services has increased more moderately over the last five years,” said Moore. “However, subscribers to these services might feel like they are getting less value for money as they are getting access to fewer football competitions than they used to be able to.”
In an effort to keep football fans that may balk at long-term pay-TV subscriptions, Sky and TNT Sports have moved to offer games over the streaming-only platforms Now TV and Discovery+ at a cheaper rate.
Ampere found 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 a month to 5% over the last five years.
Similarly, superfans who wished to watch all 15 tournaments only on streaming services paid £111.20 a month – almost £30 less than the £140 a month if signing up to pay-TV – although this had increased 52% over the last five years because of the proliferation of services needed to access all games.
A quarter of fans now say they prefer to watch live sport on streaming services only, according to Ampere.
Live sport has become increasingly crucial in keeping customers signed up to pay-TV as households assess how much they are spending as the cost of living has dramatically increased in recent years.
Ampere’s survey of UK football fans found 38% said access to sport was the only thing that kept them from cancelling their cable or satellite TV subscription.
