Streaming sport in the UK: Watch the action on the go with these services
Regardless of your sport of choice, chances are you can stream it your way in the UK. This is how.
Like in most parts of the globe, the streaming of content and particularly live sport has come a long way in the United Kingdom.
A market that was once overloaded with pop-up-fuelled, unreliable and often illegal streaming options now has a number of official, legitimate choices for viewing sport on your preferred device.
Compare sports streaming platforms
In the UK, there are still some sporting events you can access via traditional mediums, such as Wimbledon or the FIFA World Cup on the BBC or the England men’s football team in action on ITV. But these days a huge amount of sports content can only be accessed via pay TV or streaming services.
Mobile phones and tablets, certain smart TVs and gaming consoles are all viewing options for a vast array of leagues, tournaments and competitions, depending on the provider.
Pay TV operators like BT Sport (UEFA Champions League, Bundesliga, MotoGP, UFC and more) and Sky Sports (international cricket, the EFL, golf’s four major tournaments, Formula One etc) hold the rights to a litany of top sports and make them available via TV or various streaming options.
For the Premier League, the jewel in many sports lovers’ eyes, varying numbers of live games can be seen on Sky Sports, BT Sport and Amazon Prime Video, with highlights on BBC Sport.
If you have a BT Sport or Sky Sports subscription you can access their content online. If not, you can still use streaming sites like NOW. With NOW, you can access daily, weekly or monthly passes to all Sky Sports channels. We have put together a review of NOW here, including discount codes and eligible devices.
You can access Sky Sports or BT Sport through British telcos like TalkTalk. Eurosport is another subscription option, which you can sign up to directly or via Amazon Prime, Sky, Virgin Media or BT.
It’s also not just the live action itself sports fans seek. A number of streaming sites also offer features like split screens, highlights, multiple camera angles and dedicated shows as selling points.
Sports streaming platforms in the UK
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What you need to stream sport in the UK
As mentioned some mobile phone carriers like Vodafone, BT and TalkTalk have jumped onto the sports streaming bandwagon. In terms of devices, Apple TV, select Samsung and LG TVs, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Roku, plus Macs and PCs are among the other ways to access some of the content. Providers typically have monthly and annual subscriptions.
How much data does streaming live sport use in the UK?
It depends on your provider and bandwidth. For example, Chromecast’s video output is 1080p, while it also has 4K available on Chromecast Ultra. Apple TV also has 1080p and 4K options.
As a guide, if you have an Internet connection speed of around 30Mbps for download and 2.5Mbps for uploading you should be able to access content to most devices without any buffering or other issues. Streaming sports in 4K uses around 7GB/hour while HD uses a little less at around 3GB/hour. An entire UHD football match on the BBC iPlayer will use around 10GB. You can compare broadband plans here.
Image source: Getty Images
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