Sky Sports versus BT Sports: Which is the Better Football Channel?
Any football fan knows the importance of watching your favourite football team in the best and the most convenient channel ever. Sky Sports and BT Sports are both amazing channels to watch your football show. The question is, which is the better channel between the two? In addition to that, which is the better option in terms of affordability between the two?
Having such questions in mind helps you to make the right decision in selecting the best football channel. In this guide, we will have a look at some of the differentiating factors between the two football channels and at the end of this article, you will know which sports channel is the best between the two.
What Sports can you watch on both channels?
First of all, it is natural for an individual to choose a channel that offers various sporting activities.
Although the advertising of both BT Sports and Sky Sports emphasize football, both of these channels are loaded with other different sports. Below is a list of some of the sports that you can watch on each of the channels.
BT Sports:
The sports that you can watch on this channel include the following;
- Football
The football sports that you can watch here include;
- Premier League.
- UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.
- Scottish premier league.
- Australian A-League.
- UEFA Europa League.
- Vanarama National League.
- FA Cup.
- Bundesliga.
- FA Trophy
- Women’s Super League.
- Liga NOS.
Apart from football, some of the other sports that you can watch on this football channel include;
- Rugby: Challenge Cup, Aviva Premiership and Champions cup.
- Cricket: Big Ash league and Ashes.
- Tennis: WTA
- Motor Racing: Supercars championship, world rally championship, and Indy Car series, among others.
- Boxing: World, European, British and commonwealth championship boxing.
- US Sports: some of the US sports that are shown on this football channel include NBA, American college sports, NCAA college football, major league Lacrosse, NCAA college basketball.
Some of the other sporting activities you can watch on BT Sports are the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Red Bull Crashed Ice.
Sky Sports:
As discussed earlier, football is the main sporting activity that everyone thinks of when they hear of sky sports. As much as that is true, there are other sporting activities that are also broadcasted on this channel, and we will cover them in detail in this section.
- Football
Sky Sports gives you access to watch the following football matches;
- Premier league
- Championship League 1
- Championship League 2
- Scottish premier league
- EFL.
- Chinese super league.
- MLS League.
- Scottish Cup.
- La Liga.
- Eredivisie.
Other sports on sky sports are;
- Rugby: RFU, Superleague, Heineken Cup, IRB Sevens, Champions Cup, Guinness Pro 12, and Super 15.
- Cricket: Yorkshire Bank 40, Cricket World Cup, County Championship and International Cricket.
- Golf: European Tour, World Golf Championship, Ryder Cup, Masters and US PGA Tour.
- Tennis: French Open and ATP World Tour.
- Motor Racing: GP2, Formula One, Speedway and GP3.
- Boxing: WBO, IBF and WBA.
- US Sports: MLS League.
Another sporting activity that is broadcasted on sky sports is WWE.
From the different points of the comparison above, you can tell that both BT Sports and Sky Sports have a wide variety of other sporting events apart from football that they are commonly known for. However, when you are after the best premier league coverage, then Sky Sports is the best football channel for you.
This is mainly because it gives you access to more premier league matches the whole season. Also, when it comes to the sheer breadth of choice, then Sky Sports is still the best channel.
Pricing: How much it Costs to Sign up to BT Sports and Sky Sports.
This is another factor to put into consideration when you want to make a decision between the two football channels. Before you make your final decision on which channel to go with between BT Sports and Sky Sports, you need to know how much it will cost you to sign up to either channel.
In an actual sense, BT Sports costs less than Sky Sports. However, you need to have it in mind that most of the time, service providers tend to run special offers, which have an impact on the cost of both channels. This is to mean that these special offers can drastically cut the costs of signing up to either of the two channels.
The good thing about both channels is that you do not have to be a BT pay customer to watch BT Sports or be a Sky pay customer to be able to watch Sky Sports. Both Sky Sports and BT sports are available with other TV service providers. This allows you to add the channel of your choice to your pay-TV package.
The only disadvantage of adding the channels to your pay-TV package is that it will cost you more than you had budgeted for. This makes a direct subscription to BT Sports or Sky Sports the cheapest way to watch the channels.
If you are a customer of BT Sports and you do not have BT Sports, then you can add it for £15. This is not a bad deal since you will have access to all the BT Sports channels.
When it comes to Sky Sports, if you are a customer and you want to add the Sky Sports channel, then it will cost you £20 every month, for 18 months. From the difference, you can tell that Sky Sports is £5 more expensive than BT Sports.
Therefore, if you are looking for a cheaper football channel, then BT Sports is the best, but if you are looking for a channel that includes more premier league games, then Sky Sports is your best option.
Football Coverage: Which Sports Channel is the best?
Your preference holds more weight when it comes to the best football channel with the best coverage. If you are looking for more premier league, SPFL and EFL games, then Sky Sports is your best option. It may be slightly expensive, but you will have everything you need.
On the contrary, if you are looking for a cheaper viewing option that gives you access to champions league football at the comfort of your home, plus premier league matches, then BT Sports is the channel for you.
Alternatively, if you are not so tight on your budget, then another option is to sign up for both Sky Sports and BT Sports. This will bring you every sport, especially football, to you. Therefore, if you are looking for a cheaper alternative, then BT Sports is the best option for you. If you want a channel with everything, you need then Sky Sports is your best choice. If you are not so strict on your budget, then you can sign up to both football channels.
Speed: Who has the Top Speed?
Experiencing a slow connection to the internet is one of the frustrating things that anyone can go through, especially if you are watching your favourite football match. You want everything to flow well since all your attention is glued to the TV.
BT Sports:
There are 4 different broadband speeds when it comes to this football channel. The broadband speeds are as follows:
- The Basic package has a broadband speed averaging 10Mbps.
- The Fiber essential package comes with an average speed of 36Mbps.
- The fiber 1 package, previously known as BT Infinity 1 offers an average speed of 50Mbps.
- The fiber 2 package, previously known as infinity 2, offers an average speed of 67Mbps.
Sky Sports:
Sky Sports channel has 2 different broadband speeds:
- The standard broadband service offers 11Mbps.
- The fiber service package offers 59Mbps.
Therefore, when you compare the fiber packages for BT Sports and Sky Sports, you will notice that the fiber package for BT Sports is better than that of Sky Sports. From this, you can come to a conclusion that in terms of speed, BT Sports speed is 2 times better than that of Sky Sports.
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Availability: Which football channel is more available?
How available is the football channel that you are planning to use? Well, the good news is that you do not necessarily have to get either BT Sports or Sky Sports from their respective service providers. There are other TV services that include these football channels in their packages, making it much easier for you to watch them. In addition to that, another option is to watch either BT Sports of Sky Sports online.
BT Sports:
Below are some of the ways that BT Sports is available.
- Virgin Media: You can add BT Sports to your virgin media package and watch your favorite football match.
- BT TV: You will also get the full BT Sports pack to watch on TV and online with the BT TV packages.
- Sky TV: This platform also allows you to get BT Sport for an additional monthly charge. However, you cannot get this from Sky directly as part of your bundle. What you can do is sign up for this once you already have a Sky TV up and running. There are different guides online, explaining how you can successfully do this.
- Plusnet: this package is currently only accessible to a few customers. You can add your BT Sports to this package for an additional monthly charge. In addition to that, you can also get this if you already have a Sky set-top box in your home.
Sky Sports:
Here are some of the different ways that you can use to get Sky Sports.
- Now TV: This platform allows you to get a daily, weekly, or even monthly Sky Sports pass. This is very convenient and flexible for customers, especially if there is a particular match that you want to watch.
- Talk Talk: Sky Sports is also available to your Talk Talk TV package. The advantage of this platform is that it has add-ons that roll monthly. This also gives you the chance to make your cancellation at any given time.
- Virgin Media: Sky Sports can also be added to any Virgin Media TV package, but at an additional monthly charge. In addition to that, this package is also available and is included as a standard in the VIP bundle.
- BT: Lastly, you can also add Sky Sports to a BT TV package, as long as you have BT fibre-optic broadband. However, unlike all the other providers that we have discussed here, you will not be able to get all Sky Sports channels. You will only have access to Sky Sports main events and Sky Sports main events extra.
In summary, both BT Sports and Sky Sports are widely available with different providers. The only way that you can use to get everything directly on both football channels is through Virgin Media. However, you should also have different ways to watch some TV sports regardless of the provider you are with.
Petar Leykov
