This epic summer of sport continues with the return of the Premier League as Manchester United host Fulham at Old Trafford on Friday to get the new campaign under way.
The wait will soon be over and the most-watched league in the world will be back. Will Manchester City successfully defend their title again? Will Arsenal finally get over the line after two close calls? How will the post-Jurgen Klopp era at Liverpool begin? Can newly promoted Ipswich Town inflict some shock results?
Advertisement
There are so many questions and so many storylines waiting to be stuck down into the Premier League scrapbook for the 2024-25 season.
And if you are based in the United Kingdom, United States or Canada, you might be wondering how best to watch the action…
How to watch in the United Kingdom
There are 380 games in a season and Sky Sports will be showing 128 of them, starting with Friday night football at Old Trafford. Next season, the number of games on Sky will increase to 215.
You can get Sky Sports’ nine channels, including Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Main Event, for £22 ($28.25) per month on a 24-month contract. But you will need to take out a 24-month Sky TV contract separately to take up the deal. Another package available for new customers is £43 per month for 24 months for Sky Sports, Sky TV, Netflix and ultra-high definition.
Sky Sports+ is a new service for this season and will be available to existing customers of Sky Sports at no extra cost. It will allow viewers to stream English Football League games over 20 times a season per team. Sky Sports+ will stream over 1,000 EFL games alongside tennis and men’s Rugby Super League.
Football fans in the UK can also subscribe to NOW TV, which offers all Sky Sports channels. One recent deal for a NOW Sports membership was £26 per month, reduced from £34.99, on a six-month minimum term for new customers.
Sky Sports’ line-up includes presenters David Jones and Kelly Cates alongside pundits such as Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane.
Neville and Carragher at Old Trafford in April 2024 (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
TNT Sports will have 52 matches, including the early lunchtime kick-offs (12.30pm UK/7.30am ETC) on Saturdays.
Lynsey Hipgrave, who took over from Jake Humphrey as lead presenter last season, is leading coverage alongside TNT regulars such as Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Peter Crouch.
TNT will air Ipswich Town’s opening game in the early kick-off as they welcome Liverpool to Portman Road on Saturday.
Advertisement
Bundle options are available when purchasing TNT Sports. Customers can either go through Sky or BT Broadband to get their TNT fix for various fees. On its own, TNT can be purchased as part of Discovery+ for £30.99 per month.
Amazon Prime are in the sixth and final season of its deal with the Premier League and will again be streaming 20 games across two gameweeks.
It will be showing the early midweek December round of fixtures and have rights to the Boxing Day games on December 26.
Prime costs £8.99 per month or £95 per year. If you are a student or aged 18-22, then you can enjoy a discounted Amazon monthly pass for £4.94 or pay £47.49 for the year. Amazon also has the rights to broadcast Champions League matches in the UK, alongside TNT Sports, but the streaming service will get the pick of the top Tuesday night match in Europe.
Amazon allows users to stream on multiple devices via a single Prime membership, meaning customers could potentially watch more than one Premier League match at a time.
Amazon’s on-air team for their 20 games last season featured Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer and Patrice Evra, and the new line-up will be revealed closer to December.
How to watch in the United States
NBC has been showing Premier League games to fans in the U.S. since the 2013-14 season. Its current deal runs until 2027-28 and will give fans across the Atlantic access to all games across the network’s sports channels. A selection of matches are also shown on Spanish-speaking channels Universo and Telemundo each week.
GO DEEPERBehind the scenes at NBC: 'We want to be the network of the Premier League'All 380 matches are shown live across NBCUniversal platforms, including NBC, Peacock (which shows at least 175 games exclusively), and USA Network.
All NBC and USA Network matches are available via various television and video providers and Premier League matches are available live on all Peacock plans. Premium costs $7.99 (£6.22) per month and Premium Plus is $13.99 per month.
NBC Sports’ studio team is led by Rebecca Lowe, who will be joined by analysts Robbie Earle, Robbie Mustoe, Tim Howard and Danny Higginbotham. The commentary team is made up of Jon Champion and Peter Drury as well as Lee Dixon and Graeme Le Saux.
Rebecca Lowe interviews Ryan Babel for NBC on April 6, 2024, in Nashville, Tennessee (Carly Mackler/Getty Images for Premier League)
Later this year, Premier League coverage on Peacock will likely feature a multiview option, which was successfully used during NBCU’s recent coverage of the Olympics in Paris.
“You’re likely to see it in Premier League coverage on Saturday mornings,” NBC Sports president Rick Cordella said during an Olympics press conference at the start of August.
Last season was the most-watched Premier League campaign in the U.S., with an average of 546,000 viewers per TV match window, which was up four per cent from the previous season (527,000). The previous record for the average number of viewers was 541,000 back in 2015-16.
How to watch in Canada
In Canada, you will need cable service Fubo to get your fix this season.
Fubo is streaming every game as well as shoulder programming before and after matches as it has done since 2022 when it became the exclusive home of Premier League matches in Canada.
For every live game, Fubo uses ‘Matchday Live’, which is the Premier League’s flagship show. Regular pundits in the past have included former Premier League stars such as Michael Owen, Peter Schmeichel and Ian Wright.
All games will be available to stream in 4K Ultra HD and a subscription to Fubo also gives viewers access to Premier League TV.
Packages start at CA $29.99 (£17.05; $21.90) per month.
(Top photo: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
Caoimhe O'Neill is a Staff Writer for The Athletic who spent her first three years here covering Liverpool's men's, women's and academy teams. Since moving to London in summer 2023, Caoimhe now covers the Premier League and Women's Super League more broadly, with a particular focus on Luton Town. Before joining The Athletic, the University of Liverpool graduate worked as a Senior Football Writer at the Liverpool Echo. Follow Caoimhe on Twitter @CaoimheSport