How to watch the Premier League in the UK - plus full fixtures
The Premier League is back, but it's safe to say this season will finish like no other. With things sorted at the top of the table, the real competition is for the Champions League and Europa League places as well as who will be relegated, of course.
When this season began, the share of live broadcast games was more complicated than ever with Sky, BT Sport and Amazon sharing duties. With the restart, BBC Sport has joined the fray with four live games - the first time the BBC will have been able to show a live Premier League game.
As well as those BBC fixtures, there will be a large number of other games that will be free to air - Sky has already announced it will make 25 available and Amazon Prime will show four. The Amazon Prime games are also being broadcast on Twitch, too.
All 92 remaining games will be broadcast live in some way. The aim is to keep supporters away from stadiums and prevent people from gathering together to watch.
What Premier League games are coming up?
Here are all the games that have been confirmed timing-wise and who is showing them:
Monday, 29 June
Crystal Palace v Burnley (20:00), Amazon Prime and Twitch (free to view)
Tuesday 30 June
Brighton v Manchester United (20:15), Sky Sports and Pick (on Freeview)
Wednesday 1 July
Bournemouth v Newcastle (18:00), Sky Sports and Pick (on Freeview)
Arsenal v Norwich (18:00), BT Sport
Everton v Leicester (18:00), Sky Sports
West Ham v Chelsea (20:15), Sky Sports
Thursday 2 July
Sheffield United v Tottenham (18:00), Sky Sports
Manchester City v Liverpool (20:15), Sky Sports
Saturday 4 July
Norwich City v Brighton & Hove Albion (12:30), BT Sport
Leicester City v Crystal Palace (15:00), Sky Sports
Manchester United v AFC Bournemouth (15:00), BT Sport
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Arsenal (17:30), Sky Sports
Chelsea v Watford (20:00), Sky Sports
Sunday 5 July
Burnley v Sheffield United (12:00), Sky Sports
Newcastle United v West Ham United (14:00), Sky Sports
Liverpool v Aston Villa (16:30), Sky Sports
Southampton v Manchester City (19:00), BBC Sport
Monday 6 July
Tottenham Hotspur v Everton (20:00), Sky Sports
Tuesday 7 July
Crystal Palace v Chelsea (18:00), Sky Sports
Watford v Norwich City (18:00), Sky Sports
Arsenal v Leicester City (20:15), Sky Sports
Wednesday 8 July
Manchester City v Newcastle United (18:00), BT Sport
Sheffield United v Wolverhampton Wanderers (18:00), Sky Sports
West Ham United v Burnley (18:00), BT Sport
Brighton & Hove Albion v Liverpool (20:15), Sky Sports
How will the games themselves change?
All matches will take place behind closed doors for obvious reasons. There will be no fans whatsoever. Crowd noise will be pumped in (see more on that below) if you want it.
The IFAB (International Football Association Board) is the organisation responsible for the rules of football and has allowed up to five substitutes per game. This has been ratified by the Premier League and, indeed, we've already had the first quintuple substitution by Manchester United.
The IFAB has also allowed leagues that were using VAR to opt out of using it for the remainder of the season, but this isn't happening with Premier League games.
The Premier League's stated ambition is to complete remaining fixtures with home and away status preserved. However, there are several games that look like they may be played at a neutral ground on police advice - again this is to stop fans from congregating around the ground.
The planned kick-off times in the UK for live matches will also differ from traditional times. This is to do with the need to play fixtures back-to-back. Sadly though this doesn't mean you can watch everything as some will be shown at the same time.
Weekend matches will be scheduled as follows (all times BST):
- Friday 20:00
- Saturday 12:30; 15:00; 17:30; 20:00
- Sunday 12:00; 14:00; 16:30; 19:00
- Monday 20:00
Midweek matches will be scheduled as follows (all times BST):
- Tuesday 18:00; 20:00
- Wednesday 18:00; 20:00
- Thursday 18:00; 20:00
Premier League on Sky and Now TV
Sky remains the home of the Premier League on TV and it will show 64 of the 92 upcoming games. 25 of these will be free-to-air, on Sky's free-to-air Pick channel that's also available through other platforms like Freeview. As mentioned above, these free games will include the Merseyside derby on the first weekend back.
The broadcaster has teamed up with EA Sports to take the crowd noise from EA's FIFA game, so there will be team-specific crowd noise that you can choose to hear (or not). So it's Sky Sports Main Event if you want crowd noise and Sky Sports Premier League if you don't.
Unfortunately, if you're watching in Ultra HD you don't get the choice - it's mandated noise for you. Ultra HD games are once again available with Dolby Atmos.
Sky Sports is also available through Virgin Media and BT TV.
While Sky has announced HDR for Sky Q, this won't be coming to Premier League games for some time to come.
Sky is also introducing another feature called Sky Sports Recap where you can catch up on key highlights during live matches. Each game will have a live timeline so you can skip to particular points. Plus Fanzone will enable you to be together with others while you watch on TV. Though, in reality, this isn't much different than being on a Zoom call at the same time.
Now TV is available through apps on various devices, of course, and you can use Now TV day, weekly or monthly passes to watch Sky Sports channels - the day pass is £8.99, week pass at £14.99 or monthly at £33.99. It's great if you don't have a Sky subscription yet would like to watch a Sunday of action a few times a season.
Premier League on BT Sport
For the first part of this season, BT was broadcasting the 12.30pm kick-off on Saturdays on that channel as well as some other fixtures.
BT viewers can turn on pre-recorded dynamic crowd noise to make the atmosphere more like it would be in a full stadium. They're also debuting a service called Watch Together, which lets people using the BT Sport App to watch do so in split-screen with a video chat, so that groups of friends can - wait for it - watch together.
The broadcasts are available in HDR on compatible mobile devices - you can get the app on phones and tablets as well as Apple TV, Xbox and PlayStation. They'll also be available in 4K with Dolby Atmos if you have the BT YouView Ultra HD TV box, and in 360 degrees through the BT Sport App for those who want it.
BT TV has told us it is offering a 50 percent discount on its Big Sport package until the season is over.
That means existing Fibre customers can watch the remaining 92 games live, for just £20 per month (down from £40 per month). You can turn the Big Sport package off afterwards should you wish.
Premier League on Amazon Prime
Amazon entered the fray this season and will have four games. While Amazon's previous games needed you to be a member of Amazon Prime to view them, this time they will be available free-to-air for anybody to watch even if you don't have a Prime subscription.
Amazon will also stream them on Twitch for free.
The Amazon games will also have the option of full-crowd 'Stadium Atmosphere' and the availability of match highlights. As before, you'll be able to watch games on replay after.
All Prime Video fixtures will also have full pitch side, pre-match build-up with presenters and guests, including Gabby Logan, Roberto Martinez and Lee Dixon.
Premier League on Virgin Media
This season Virgin Media launched a new Bigger+Sports bundle costing £65 per month for new customers. For that, you'll get all the Sky Sports channels in HD as well as BT Sport in HD and 4K Ultra HD.
Premier League highlights
As during the first part of this season, each broadcaster can show in-game goals and clips from its live games as they're happening. Sky also shows extended highlights On Demand through its Saturday night Game of the Day and Match Choice.
Once more, the BBC will show Football Focus on Saturday lunchtimes, Match of the Day on Saturday nights - usually at 10.30pm and Match of the Day 2 around the same time on a Sunday.
There will be additional Match of the Day programmes to enable more fans - who now can't go to the games of course - to catch up on the action. So there will be regular midweek editions and any other times when there are more than a couple of games.
Sky will once again show Goals on Sunday on Sunday mornings.
All this season Match of the Day has been available on BBC iPlayer earlier than previously, though not as early as many would be like. The Saturday night programme will be available from 7pm on Sundays and Match of the Day 2 from midnight on Sunday into Monday.
While the latter is close to broadcast, the Saturday night show is nearly 24 hours later and it's because of other highlights packages and shows such as Sky's Goals on Sunday and Super Sunday that have the right to be shown first.
from Pocket-lint https://ift.tt/2yTtGKP
via IFTTT
No comments: