Cheapest ways to watch Sky Sports without a subscription (March 2020)

You don’t need a Sky subscription to watch Sky Sports! Here are the latest deals for pay as you go passes on NOW TV and Amazon Prime.

I’m a big fan of NOW TV (we’ve got the Entertainment Pass to watch Sky Atlantic shows) as a cheap way to watch Sky channels. If you are a fan of the Premier League, golf, cricket Formula 1 or dozens of other sports but can’t afford Sky, it can be a real money saver.

> Read more: How much it really costs to watch a match on Sky Sports

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Sky Sports and coronavirus

I’ve had confirmation from NOW TV and Sky Sports today (16th March) that there are currently no plans to refund customers with month or season-long passes (NOW TV) or longer contracts (Sky) to watch Sky Sports. This could of course change so I’ll update it here if I hear anything.

In the meantime, if you do have a prepaid pass but nothing to watch then I’d personally get in touch with the customer services to see if they’ll do anything. There’s a live chat option on the website.

Separately, NOW TV has also removed any of the special offers such as the nine-month F1 season pass.

What is NOW TV?

Think of NOW TV as a pay per view iPlayer for the Sky TV channels. The sports pass give you access to all 10 Sky Sports channels without a contract, so you can watch per day, per week or per month.

Though Sky has recently updated its channel line up to specialist channels such as Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Golf, NOW TV doesn’t let you just pick one channel. But this can still work out cheaper than subscribing monthly via Sky, Virgin, BT or TalkTalk.

NOW TV can be streamed on your computer, tablet, some smart TVs, Chromecast or via special NOW TV stick.

The passes don’t include TV or movie channels, which you need to buy separate passes for – though there are plenty of discounts to be found and I’ve summarised the best on my  NOW TV deals page.

> Don’t forget to read my guide to the cheapest ways to watch Premier League football on TV with more top tips for Sky and BT Sport


£27 Cashback on NOW TV Sky Sports passes 

Cashback sites TopCashback or Quidco offer money back for new NOW TV users.

Both cashback sites offer up to £10 cashback on the different sports passes. It’s not always the best deal so do check the other options further down this page. The actual rates for the NOW TV cashback can change on a daily basis so it’s worth looking at both to see which has the best deal. Do read all the terms and conditions to make sure you don’t miss out.

However, what does generally make these offers unbeatable is if you are a new user of either of the cashback sites. There’s generally a £10 bonus with Quidco (min spend £5) and a £10 bonus available with Topcashback (min spend £10), and I regularly update the best offers. If you sign up for my newsletter, then there’s an increased £17 bonus from Quidco for new members (min spend £10).

Check out the latest new customer offers for Quidco and TopCashback


NOW TV Sky Sports Day pass offers

Far better than a Sky contract is a £9.99 Day Pass and £14.99 Week Pass. Despite recent price increases, I think these passes represent decent value for money for occasional viewing.

There are often discounts to be had, such as 20% off or free passes with Pringles and I’ll share any I find on this page.

> Buy a day Sky Sports pass for £9.99


NOW TV Sky Sports Week pass offers

Again new customers can sometimes save at least 10% on the week pass though there aren’t any of these offers right now. However, if you want to go direct it’ll cost you £14.99.

> Buy a week Sky Sports pass

£9.19 Sky Sports week pass from CD Keys

CD Keys has deals that come and go, and have been as low as £4.99 – a bargain! Currently, it’s just over £9. You can only use one per account, and if you’ve previously used a pass from the Playstation Network it might not work at all. If that happens get in touch with CDKeys and see if you can get a refund.

> Get reduced Sky Sports passes at CD Keys

£10 week pass gift card from Currys

Existing customers can get a decent discount by ordering a physical gift card from Currys. It’ll cost you £10. This obviously isn’t instant, so you need to order a good few days before you want to watch, or pick it up in-store.

> Buy a Sky Sports week pass for £10 from Currys 


Month-long Sky Sports pass on NOW TV

If you are going to watch a lot of the action on Sky Sports it’s probably cheaper to get a subscription via Sky, Virgin or BT. But if you want to dip in and out month by month you can buy a month pass for £33.99.

There are often discounts on the first month or two, sometimes as long as nine or 12 months. I’ll share any here when they are live. Don’t forget to cancel the month sports pass if you don’t want it to renew at full price.

Month passes also start from the moment you pay, unlike week and day passes which you activate when you want them to start.

> Get a Sky Sports Month Pass 

One month of Sky Sports and a NOW TV stick 

Currys had this bundle in its Black Friday sale for £19.99 but it’s now gone up to £30, just £10 off full price.

One month NOW TV Sports pass for £23 to £25

You can pick up a gift card that covers a full month. It’s £23.99 at CDKeys, or costs £25 from the likes of Curry’s, Amazon and Argos.


Mobile Sky Sports passes

NOW TV has announced some new mobile passes which you can only watch via an app on your phone or tablet. This makes them a fair bit cheaper.

The mobile pass is only £5.99 for a month. It only has four sports channels – Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Sports Action, Sky Sports Arena and Sky Sports News.

Get one month Sky Sports mobile pass on NOW TV for £5.99


Amazon Prime

10 matches for free or £7.99 

This season Amazon is showing all the fixtures from two weeks. The first ran from 3rd to 5th December, the second from 26th to 27th December. You could watch all the games – though some were on at the same time as others so you had to pick or watch replays after midnight.

Prime costs £79 a year, or £7.99 a month – which means you can pay just under £8 if you only want to watch the games. There’s also a free 30-day trial – just remember to cancel it if you don’t want to keep paying.

As well as being able to watch the football, you’ll get access to loads of movies and TV shows, as well as other Amazon benefits such as free delivery and early access to sales.

BT Sport

You can now buy month passes for BT Sport. More details on this and other deals here.

60 thoughts on “Cheapest ways to watch Sky Sports without a subscription (March 2020)

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  4. The Now tv box has the potential, for Sky, to snare people like me, that just want Sports. We live in a completely different media world than the one Sky started. Contracts are outdated. I won’t pay for a Sky+ when the only thing I record (what little there is) is available on Freeview. Why would I pay for it, the clue’s in its name? Movies hold no interest for me either. I am, however, a sports fan. But I’m also not stupid. Charge a reasonable amount a month, (£50 direct debit?) as a standard price not a special offer, for Sky Sports streaming and you’ll get far more customers. Fact. I don’t miss a great deal of my sport, I watch some in the pub, or a mates house yet here is my money Sky, I’m still prepared to give you it. Just stop trying to rob me.

    1. Yes, so many people pay for everything but just don’t watch enough. I’ve cut my TV bill by a huge chunk by using Now TV for Sky Atlantic and Fox

      1. CAN U GET BT SPORTS ON OW TV BOX

        1. Hi, Sadly not. It’s just the Sky channels

      2. I am in the process of cancelling Sky Sports, as they have lost La Liga, plus CL last year, gone over to Eleven Sportts for La Liga my pass worked out at £1 per week. Will purchase a Now TV stick for the UEFA Nations League for October and November. Two months as opposed to be charged 12 months. They really are going to lose out and won’t do a thing for supposed long standing customers.

  5. Thanks for the article Andy. For those who live outside UK and want to access NowTV, you can use UnoTelly as I do to get around the geo block.

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  7. I have a free view box can I watch now sports on my hitachi tv

    1. Hi Norman, you’ve a few options. First you can connect a computer or laptop via a cable to your TV and stream it on your computer. Much better is to buy a NOW TV box or Chromecast. A NOW TV box is around £10, though there are deals to get one free with other NOW TV passes. You plug it into an HDMI port on your TV. Or a Chromecast is between £20 and £30 and it allows you to stream from your computer, phone or tablet wirelessly.

  8. patrick mc guinness 8th November 2017 at 3:26 pm

    can you the sky footbal channel with now?

    1. You get all the Sky Sports channels, so yeah, you get the footy!

  9. Was hunting for a deal to get sky sports in over Xmas for the darts on nowtv. Almost paid £34 yesterday til I came across ur link for the half price month. Thank you!! ?

    1. Great!! Glad I could help

  10. Andy a couple of android apps and a chromecast and you have all the sport for free.

  11. We have a Panasonic smart tv with the Now TV movie app. When you go into it there is no mention of The option of passes for sport.
    If we set up an account will we be able to use a Sky sport pass on this app or will we need a Now box.
    If we need a box is it easy to install and use.

    1. Hi Jacky, it could be it only allows Movies (Some YouView boxes have this restriction). If that’s the case the box is really easy to plug in. You just need a spare HDMI port on the TV and a plug socket to power the box. THere’s a new NOW TV Stick which is a bit faster, though the best deals are with the normal box – https://becleverwithyourcash.com/now-tv-deal/

  12. I want to buy my husband a Sports Pass for his 80 th birthday. Can you tell me the cheapest way to do this? Thank you. Are the American androids on offer ok?

    1. Hi Sheila,

      Are you after a one-off pass for a day or week, or something he can watch all year? The cheapest are listed in this article, but do bear in mind you need to have a NOW TV box, app on your TV or a cable from your computer to watch NOW TV on a TV.

  13. Elizabeth McLeod 28th July 2018 at 9:45 am

    Looking for advice please?
    We currently buy Now sports passes and now want to buy either the Now stick or box with Entertainment passes.
    Have Bt you view box and am out of contract.
    I have a Samsung tv which is 4 yrs old and can’t view Now vi app on tv. What’s better stick or box?

    1. Hi Elizabeth, the stick has the potential to stream in full HD (though not yet – apparently it’ll be later this year) and let’s you pause live TV. So it’s a lot better than the box. You will pay a little more, but only a few quid. I think it’s worth it in the long run.

  14. I want to end my contract with BT (phone, broadband, tv) as getting too expensive, we do have BT sports and my husband wants to keep Sports for the football, I only need Freeview.

    Can you suggest what you think may be the cheapest option ?

    1. Hi Christine, If you’re definitely going to keep BT Sports you might be better off staying with BT for phone and broadband but cutting the rest of the TV as BT Sport can be pricey if you aren’t with BT. It’s worth calling up and seeing if there are any ways they will cut your bill. Say you’re planning on leaving (you don’t actually have to go through with it). If you don’t mind losing your landline number you can get you or your husband (whichever one of you isn’t named on the bill at the moment) to join as a new customer. They’d take over your service and you’d get the new customer offers.

  15. new to this, I have a smart tv (Samsung) and want to get one day passes to watch Sky sports 1 to watch the Premiership team I support. HOW do I go
    about it?

    1. Hi Bev, first you need to sign up to NOW TV. It’s worth taking advantage of a new member offers. Once you’ve done that, and as long as you have the Now TV app on your TV, you can log in and watch it. Each time you want to get a new Sky Sports pass you can either check back here for any offers, or just buy it full price through your NOW TV account.

  16. Hi there. I’d like to buy a sky sports monthly pass but I’m struggling to find any deals, could you please point me in the right direction? If I can avoid paying full price then that would be super!

    Thanks

    1. Hi Ash, I list the best deals I can find on this page, and right now the only deal is a 10 month season pass which finishes mid August. I’d definitely think about how much you are going to watch to see if you can save by getting the weekly or day passes instead of the month. If you are watching most months then consider going via your TV provider.

  17. Please help, sky hot our bill without notifying us to £91!! We were paying£66. Due to illnesses I no longer work, we love sport but only darts in December is of interest at the moment til March 19. We have Freeview, but would it be lots cheaper to get sky sports on that? And how do we do it? Sky not helping, even insulted my disability by saying “we have people here in the office who are disabled and they can still work!” Unbelievable!!

    1. Hi, if you’re not in contract you can leave at any time, or cut down what you pay for. So yes, def cancel Sky Sports for now at least. You can always start up again on March. Now TV can be cheaper, though it depends on how much you watch. Look for a deal which costs around £20 a month to make it comparable to direct from Sky. The easiest way to watch on your TV is with a Now TV stick or Pass. These can be as low as £15, which includes a couple of months of tv channels. Black Friday is a good time to get this – but make sure you’ve stopped Sky first so you aren’t paying twice

  18. “If you are a fan of the Premier League, golf, cricket Formula 1 or dozens of other sports but can’t afford Sky….” Hold on let me just stop you there. I find that quite a presumptuous and slightly offensive remark. For most people including myself it has nothing to do with being able to afford Sky or not, but rather the choice to pay as little as possible for the same thing. It’s called being thrifty. I could easily afford Sky sports, even if it was a grand a month, but I choose to shop around for the best deal.

    “Be Clever with your cash” – indeed, couldn’t agree more. But please also be clever with you choice of phrase.

    1. Offensive ? Come on Martin, really ? Even slightly ?
      “For most people including myself” ..since when did you do a survey ? You don’t speak for us, especially if….”I could easily afford Sky sports, even if it was a grand a month”. It’s ok for Andy to say, “if you cannot afford Sky”, because I can’t and there are many people who earn less than me so please try not to be so presumptuous, offended or clever.

    2. What are you talking about?
      I can’t afford it.
      Aren’t YOU being very presumptuous and offensive?

    3. Wow.

      Well done on being able to afford Sky Sports, Martin, even if it was a grand a month. Maybe you could buy us all a Sky Sports subscription? Or is that offensive?

      How dare any-one assume that you, Martin, might not be able to afford something. May we all grovel at your feet and beg for forgiveness. How dare we all. All hail Lord Martin McMoneybags.

      I bet you never buy a round at the pub.

      “I could…..I could…..guys, even if they were £500 a pint…..I just…..I just…..I just don’t w-w-w-w-want to!!!”

    4. Good for you Martin.Lots of people can’t afford it.Maybe you could pay it for them,as you admit if it was one thousand a month you could easily afford it.

      What an obnoxious person you are,glad I don’t know you in real life

  19. Sky sports mobile on offer for £1 per month. Use your digital camera on manual focus to point at your phone screen. Use an hdmi cable from your camera to your TV and a bluetooth speaker for audio from your mobile. Wow cheapskates ultimate way to get sky premiere league matches on TV for £1 per month.

    1. Ha, love this. Super thrifty. Would anyone actually do this??

      1. Or…
        Buy a USB-c to hdmi converter cable (£7.99 on Amazon). Plug one end into your phone, the other into the TV’s hdmi slot. Bingo!

    2. Or just press screen mirror and your phone links straight to your screen no wires)

  20. you said “CD Keys has deals that come and go, but right now a week pass is just £5.99 – a bargain! You can buy multiple, but you can only keep one on your NOW TV account at any time.”
    If not a physical voucher from CD keys where would I keep the codes? Do you mean keep them in my email and only load one at a time. How long are they valid for? Looking to stash a few ahead of premiership starting again

    1. Exactly as you say, keep it in your email. I don’t know how long they last so that’s why I’d be cautious and not buy too many. If they did expire you could talk to NOW TV on chat and see if they’d help – they often do replace expired codes if you can prove purchase.

  21. Hi Andy,

    I’ve got a Natwest MyRewards account linked to my current account (I dont think it is actually a rewards/cashback current account). There are a list of participating retailers when I login, but I can’t see NowTV in the list. Is this deal exclusively for rewards accounts (e.g. https://personal.natwest.com/personal/current-accounts/reward_account.html) or any account linked to MyRewards? Thanks

    1. Hmm, It could be account specific, or linked just to the Reward Account. Anyone else got it/ not got it?

      1. I don’t seem to have it on my Natwest MyRewards account? and I am a rewards customer.

  22. Is their any possible way using the mobile month pass of getting it too work on my TV

    1. No. I tried this thinking I was smart. There’s detection software that blocks casting and even recognises any MHL to HDMI cables. I tried both, neither worked!

      Still a good deal though to watch on the iPad.

  23. our sky bill has just gone up to £90 a month!!! we only wants sky sports can we do the month sports pass on now tv?
    can you confirm what channels you get with month pass please ? is premier league channel included?

    thanks

    1. Hi Stacy, I’ve listed the channels you get above in the article, and yes Premier League is included! So you can do the month pass. It’s £30-odd a month, though you only have to commit to one month at a time. This means you can cancel when there are no matches you want to watch. And look out for special offers – I’ll list them here on this page when I spot them

  24. I’ve just paid for a skysports pass that says it’s unavailable how do I get a refund?

    1. Where did you buy it? First it’s worth trying NOW TV (there’s a webchat feature I’ve used before), as they might be able to activate it. If not, go back to the retailer to request the money back

    2. My monthly sports pass bought on offer at 16.99 today ( 28th Dec)but I cannot watch cricket on my smart TV or my PC via the app . Have I been ripped off?

      1. Did you get it to work? Their Sports Pass does give access to all the sky sports channels

  25. Hi I want to buy a sky sports mobile tv pass which is 5.99 but I do not have a now tv account does that matter or will I be able to create one for free if I buy this sky sports pass?

    1. Hey Cameron. Yes you’ll be able to set up a free account when you make your first purchase.

  26. I am hearing the football is a good 2 minutes behind the normal sky sports and BT sports, is this correct?

    1. Hmm, I don’t know. It’s not something I’ve spotted…

  27. I had a ‘cheap’ sky sports month pass @ £20 which I cancelled before falling into £33.99 regular fee … as you predicted, the system offered me a cheap deal of £16.99 for 3-months. Thanks for the advice 🙂

    1. That’s a great saving

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