Football fans who want to watch all the biggest club competitions on television are paying almost 60% more than they were five years ago, according to new analysis. The combined cost of the subscription services needed to follow the 15 most popular tournaments and leagues has risen from £89.23 a month in the 2019-20 season to £140.21 in 2024-25, a jump of 57%.
The increase has been driven by the fragmentation of broadcasting rights, with the number of platforms required to watch all the major competitions growing from four to ten over the past decade. A decade ago, fans needed only Sky Sports, BT Sport, and the free-to-air channels ITV and the BBC. Now, eight subscription services are required alongside the BBC and ITV, including Premier Sports, DAZN, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, OneFootball, and Ligue 1's direct subscription service.
According to Ampere Analysis, which carried out the research, only 1% of football fans are willing to pay for all the services needed to keep up with the 15 competitions. However, just over two-thirds of fans are content to sign up to the three main rights-holders: Sky, TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport, now run by Warner Bros Discovery), and Amazon. These three hold the rights to the most popular competitions, including the Premier League, English Football League, Champions League and the FA Cup, with the BBC showing some FA Cup matches via a licensing deal with TNT.
For fans happy with those three providers, the monthly cost has increased by 14% over the last five years, to £91.99, including the necessary subscription to basic Sky TV. But Danni Moore, a senior analyst at Ampere, said subscribers may feel they are getting less value because they have access to fewer competitions than before. In response, Sky and TNT have introduced cheaper streaming-only options through Now TV and Discovery+.
Fans who use only streaming services from Sky, TNT and Amazon have limited their cost increase to 5% over the same period. Even superfans wanting to watch all 15 tournaments via streaming alone would pay £111.20 a month – almost £30 less than the £140 pay-TV equivalent – although that figure has risen by 52% because of the growing number of services needed. A quarter of fans now say they prefer to watch live sport only on streaming services.
Live sport has become increasingly important in retaining pay-TV subscribers, with 38% of fans surveyed saying access to sport was the only thing stopping them from cancelling their cable or satellite television subscription.
