Sky Sports vs BT Sport: Battle of the Premier League football broadcasters – Daily Mail

Never mind the waiting game surrounding Paul Pogba’s £100million move to Manchester United — the biggest-money deal to shake up the Premier League is still yet to come into play.

Between them, Sky Sports and BT Sport have shelled out £5.36billion to show live coverage of the English top flight, with this the first season of a three-year mega-deal.

Among the big changes are new Friday night kick-offs hosted by Rachel Riley, highlights being shown on Twitter and a rival to Jeff Stelling’s Soccer Saturday.

And all that comes after a huge summer of transfer business boosted by the television billions with a month of purchases still left to run.

Here, Sportsmail provides the lowdown on what the Premier League will look like on TV this season with less than a week to go until the big kick-off.

What’s new this season?

This is the season everything changes for the Premier League, with the introduction of the new £5.36bn television deal.

Both Sky Sports and BT Sport will show more matches than ever before – 126 and 42 respectively – with the major addition to the schedule being the introduction of Friday night games.

We saw Manchester United take on Aston Villa at Villa Park last August on a Friday due to logistical issues but this time the slot is here to stay.

Sky hold the ‘E’ package, which gives them 10 matches on Friday nights at 8pm in addition to 18 Monday evening games.

The first on a Friday is Manchester United vs Southampton on August 19. Those who aren’t fans of the early kick-offs on a Saturday are set for a shock, too.

Those games are a quarter of an hour earlier, starting at 12.30pm rather than 12.45pm.

Which games have Sky and BT got?

Sky broke the bank to get the lion’s share of matches and therefore hold five of the seven time-slot ‘packages’ on offer from the Premier League.

They will have the Saturday 12.30pm, Sunday 1.30pm, Sunday 4pm, Monday night and new Friday night matches – plus Bank Holiday and other Sunday slots.

This leaves BT Sport with the 5.30pm Saturday slot and occasional midweek matches.

THE PACKAGES SKY WON

Package A comprises 28 games on Saturday lunchtimes (12.30pm). Pack A has six first pick games from 38 rounds.

Package C has 28 games kicking off between 1.30pm and 2.15pm on Sundays but no first pick games.

Package D is the 4pm Sunday bundle of 28 games – crucially with 18 first pick games.

Package E is the ‘Monday night football’ (8pm) bundle, with 18 games on Mondays plus 10 on Fridays. There are no first picks in this package.

Package G is a bundle of 14 games on Bank Holidays and other Sunday matches with two first picks.

THE PACKAGES BT SPORT WON

Package B has 28 games at tea-time on Saturdays (5.30pm). B has nine first picks.

Package F has 14 games, a mix of midweek and Saturday games including three first picks.

Who’s going to be presenting it all?

Jake Humphrey is the lead man for BT Sport once again this season but at Sky things are a little different.

David Jones is still around but Ed Chamberlin – host of Monday Night Football – has moved to ITV to work on their horse racing coverage, starting in January of next year. Jones will take over the reins for the Monday analysis-heavy programme.

Meanwhile, Countdown co-presenter Rachel Riley will take a role as part of Sky’s new coverage of their 10 Premier League matches on a Friday night.

She will be alongside Jeff Stelling for the Friday night matches alongside other guests, reuniting the presenter pairing that led Countdown between 2009 and 2011. 

Manchester United’s home match against Southampton on August 19 will be the first to be screened live on a Friday evening.

Simon Thomas will host Saturday lunchtime matches. 

What pundits do they have to offer?

The start of the new season heralds the return of Gary Neville to Sky after his failed stint managing Valencia in Spain.

The former Manchester United right back’s combination with Jamie Carragher impressed before he left to enter management and viewers will be excited to see the pair reprise their partnership this season.

Sky said Neville will make ‘guest appearances’ on the popular Monday evening show and be involved in other coverage. 

Neville said: ‘I am delighted to be rejoining Sky Sports and can’t wait for the start of the new football season, especially as there will be a variety of new programming on the channel.’  

Sky also continue with a solid line-up of Thierry Henry – entering his second season with the channel – Jamie Redknapp and Graeme Souness.

BT now have a well-established team featuring Michael Owen, Robbie Savage, Harry Redknapp and Howard Webb that will be back again this season. Jermaine Jenas, Harry Kewell and Eni Aluko join their pundit roster. 

And what about the commentary teams?

Sportsmail columnist Carragher will be giving up his warm seat in the studio to climb into the commentary gantry starting from this season to provide co-commentary on Sky while Neville will also return to commentary duties.

Carragher’s first game on co-comms will be Burnley vs Liverpool at Turf Moor on August 20.

Gary Hughes, Sky Sports’ head of football says: ‘It’s something he wants to do. It will be good for him to do it on a Liverpool game. Jamie’s brave, he’s got strong opinions and he wants to try new things.’

Martin Tyler will continue to lead their commentary team with Darren Fletcher BT’s key man on the microphone.

Michael Owen is set to continue to be a regular feature on BT’s coverage. 

Are there any new special features?

Sky boast that their Friday night programme will involve ‘guests from inside and outside the world of sport’ to provide a new dynamic to a different timeslot, although details have not yet been revealed.

Every one of BT’s live Premier League matches will be broadcast in 4K/Ultra HD quality, a service they began last year, while Sky have also launched a 4K service.

Meanwhile, fans will no longer have to rely on Vine clips showing a television screen recorded by a mobile phone.

Instead, highlights will now be available on Twitter. Twitter users following the @SkyFootball account in the UK and Ireland will be able to see video clips of key moments and goals from all games broadcast by Sky in real time.

Viewers in Ireland can also see live action from 3pm kick-offs for the first time, with Hayley McQueen presenting on Sky.

If you’re an EE mobile customer you’re now entitled to six months-worth of BT Sport for free — make sure you take advantage.

What about Saturday 3pm games?

Broadcasters are still not permitted to show live football between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on a Saturday, so Sky and BT will show their own programmes to bring the latest news to viewers.

Stelling returns to Sky to host the ever-popular Soccer Saturday but they have competition this year in the form of Mark Pougatch.

The BBC and ITV presenter will front ‘BT Sport Score’ with Jenas, Kewell, Savage, Redknapp, James and Webb among the team analysing the action on television feeds.

The show promises to feature all the matches across the UK, the major fixtures in Europe and games from the Women’s Super League.

What about the other leagues?

BT proudly boast that they will be showing ‘four competitions’ in ‘one venue’ with their coverage of the Premier League, Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup.

They will show the entirety of the two European tournaments, all 351 matches, plus up to 24 Emirates FA Cup matches.

A selection of Champions League and Europa League games will be free to view, including the final. Last season they showed 12 and 14 games for free from each competition, respectively.

BT have had success with broadcasting matches on YouTube as well as via their traditional channels and could opt to continue down that route.

Sky plan to show 127 matches from the Football League, EFL Cup and EFL Trophy.

The two broadcasters share rights for the Scottish Premiership but Sky will have the benefit of showing all Old Firm games between Celtic and Rangers, with that firecracker fixture returning to the regular calendar this year.

They also own rights to Spain’s La Liga, the Dutch Eredivisie, Chinese Super League and Major League Soccer. BT have rights to the National League, Community Shield, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Brazil’s Brasileirao, the Swiss Super League and UEFA’s youth tournaments, too.