BT vs Sky is football's multi-billion pound rivalry as Champions League gets new home and broadcasters fight over La Liga... so who is showing what this season?
- The battle between Sky Sports and BT Sport over TV rights is hotting up
- Champions League coverage will switch from Sky to BT this season
- BT are obliged to show one match per week on free-to-air channel
- Sky retain the bulk of the Premier League coverage each weekend
- They will show 116 games, while BT will screen 38 from top flight
- The two broadcasters are at odds over coverage of La Liga
The intense rivalries on the football field are now matched by an equally heated power struggle off it as Sky Sports and BT Sport go head to head to beam live coverage into your living room.
As the new season begins, armchair fans can enjoy more televised football than ever before, but they also pay more than ever for the privilege.
The escalating arms race between Sky and BT has led to spiralling prices for live rights with costs then typically passed on to the consumer in some way or another.
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The Sky Sports Premier League punditry team of (left to right) Graeme Souness, Jamie Carragher, Thierry Henry, Jamie Redknapp and Gary Neville will be talking us through the new season
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The BT Sport punditry team at the launch of their Champions League coverage, including Michael Owen (left), Gary Lineker (front), Steven Gerrard (second right) and Ian Wright (right)
BT's stunning capture of Champions League rights from this season rocked Sky, who responded by paying a record £4.18bn to ensure they retained the bulk of the Premier League coverage up to 2019.
Now a new battle has broken out over the rights to Spanish football coverage, which seems set to switch to BT this season after many years on Sky.
As we prepare for the big kick-off, here's your complete guide to where you can watch your football this season and how much it's likely to cost you.
THE PREMIER LEAGUE - WHO IS SHOWING WHAT?
Coverage of the Barclays Premier League for the 2015-16 season will continue to be shared between Sky Sports and BT Sport.
As they have since the league's inception in 1992, Sky retain the bulk of the live matches, screening 116 in total between next weekend and the climax in May.
Sky's matches will be predominantly on Saturday evenings (5.30pm kick-off), Sundays (1.30pm and 4pm) and Monday nights (8pm).
BT Sport, meanwhile, will show 38 matches and their usual slot is Saturday lunchtimes (12.45pm).
On 18 of the 38 rounds of matches, BT will enjoy the 'first pick', meaning they are likely to show the biggest game of the weekend.
Both Sky and BT have announced which matches they'll be showing until the end of November.
This is the third and final season of the £3.018bn live TV rights deal announced in June 2012.
From next season, we enter the £5.136bn contract that sent shockwaves through the football world when announced back in February. This will mean an increase in live games, with Sky showing 126 and BT 42.
To put all that in some kind of perspective, Sky paid a mere £304m for exclusive live rights to the first FIVE seasons of the Premier League between 1992 and 1997.
WHO WILL WE BE WATCHING?
Sky's punditry team includes long-serving members Graeme Souness and Jamie Redknapp, Monday Night Football regulars Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher, and Thierry Henry, who came on board last season.
BT's stable of pundits include Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand, Steve McManaman, Owen Hargreaves and David James, with another former player, Michael Owen, often a co-commentator.
Their Champions League coverage will be fronted by Gary Lineker while Steven Gerrard is one of their pundits.
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Presenter Ed Chamberlain (right) with Sky Sports pundits Souness (left) and Henry
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BT Sport punditry trio Rio Ferdinand (left) Glenn Hoddle (centre) and Ian Wright cover the Community Shield
WHAT ELSE HAVE THEY GOT?
SKY SPORTS
Football League - 112 live matches from the Championship, League One and League Two, plus the end-of-season play-offs
Capital One Cup - exclusive live coverage from each round
Johnstones Paint Trophy - exclusive coverage through to the final at Wembley
Scottish football - 25 live games from north of the border from the top flight, plus games from the Scottish Championship (usually involving Rangers) and the Scottish Cup
Dutch Eredivisie - live coverage of the top flight in Holland, often with three or four games a weekend
Major League Soccer - live coverage from the USA each weekend, plus the play-offs and the MLS Cup
Coppa Italia - live coverage of Italy's cup competition through to the final
Euro 2016 Qualifiers - live Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland games plus live coverage of most other games through the red button
BT SPORT
FA Cup - live coverage of up to 24 matches through to the final at Wembley.
UEFA Champions League - BT's first season of exclusive live coverage of Europe's top club competition, for which they paid £897m for a three-year deal.
Every one of the 351 games in the competition will be shown live, with the main ones on the new BT Sport Europe channel and others via the red button.
A free-to-air channel, BT Sport Showcase, will show at least 12 Champions League matches at no cost during the season. This is to meet UEFA demands to secure the biggest possible audiences for commercial exposure.
UEFA Europa League - this is now also on BT, who will show every match live from the group stage through to the final. Again, there will be a minimum of 14 freeview games on BT Sport Showcase, most likely involving the British clubs in the competition.
UEFA Super Cup - Barcelona vs Sevilla from Tbilisi is live on BT Sport Europe on Tuesday August 11 (kick-off 7.45pm).
Scottish football - 30 live games a season from the Premiership and also coverage of the Championship.
National League - 30 live games from the top tier of non-League football, formerly known as the Football Conference.
Serie A - coverage from the Italian top flight, with two or three games each weekend, usually on Sunday afternoons and Monday night.
Bundesliga - coverage from Germany, with two or three top-flight games each weekend, usually on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. Also live coverage from the second division and the German Cup.
Ligue 1 - coverage of the French top league plus the French Cup and French League Cup.
Primeira Liga - up to four live matches a week from Portugal.
Swiss Super League - a new addition for this season, live games from the top league in Switzerland.
Brazilian football - live matches, usually on Sunday nights, from the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A and the Campeonato Paulista.
Australian football - every match live from the A-League and coverage of the Australian FFA Cup.
England U21 - all home internationals screened live. Also occasional coverage of England youth games.
Women's football - live coverage of the FA Women's Super League and the WSL Continental Cup.
HANG ON... DONDE ESTA LA LIGA?
As the new season approaches, coverage of Spanish football remains up in the air.
Sky have held the rights to La Liga for two decades but dramatically withdrew from the latest round of bidding after the Spanish football league (LFP), encouraged by interest from BT, took the bidding process to a second round.
Sky took exception to this and so we could well see Barcelona, Real Madrid and the rest over on BT Sport Europe from now on.
PHEW! THAT'S A LOT OF FOOTBALL... HOW MUCH WILL ALL THIS SET ME BACK?
The short answer is that all this televised football doesn't come cheap, as this article from last week's Money Mail explains in some detail.
To summarise, if you want to watch everything in pixel-popping high definition, you'll need to buy Sky Sports in HD with a compulsory Sky Family pack (they don't allow you to buy just the sport package) and that is £66.75 per month or £801 a year.
In addition, you'll need a BT Sport HD pack which is £23.99 per month or £287.88 a year. The total is £1,088.88 per calendar year, which would get you a Premier League season ticket.
If you already have BT Broadband, this would cost £9 a month.
Alternatively, you could get Sky's Now TV service, which is a small box that streams live TV via your internet connection and is also available on your iPad or smartphone.
This runs at £31.99 per month or £383.88 a year. This plus the aforementioned BT package comes to £671.76 a year.
Alternatively, set up residency at your local pub. Just don't think about your health...
I DON'T WANT TO PAY THAT... WHAT CAN YOU GET FOR FREE THESE DAYS?
It's pretty slim pickings for those with a Freeview box these days I'm afraid.
With the migration of the Champions League to BT, the Tuesday night match on ITV is no more, although a live game can be found on BT Sport Showcase as previously mentioned. It should already be on your Freeview line-up.
Otherwise, ITV will continue to show England internationals home and away, including their remaining Euro 2016 qualifiers.
The BBC will continue to show games from the FA Cup from the first round through to the final and they usually have the plum tie from each stage.
Viewers in Scotland continue to get coverage from the Scottish League, the Scottish Cup and the League Cup on BBC Scotland and BBC Alba.
Don't worry though, the World Cup and European Championship have protected status and will be on BBC and ITV for the foreseeable.
WHAT ABOUT HIGHLIGHTS?Match of the Day still takes pride of place in the BBC's Saturday and Sunday night schedule, bringing you the day's Premier League best bits.
But you may have already seen the big 3pm match on Sky Sports, who show a full re-run at about 8pm, not to mention the games live earlier in the day on Sky and BT.
Channel 5 have bought the rights to show Saturday night Football League highlights, replacing the BBC's post-pub Football League Show, and will ambitiously show it at 9pm.
They are offering highlights from the Championship, League One and League Two in a 90-minute show that will end conveniently in time for Match of the Day.
ITV will have late-evening highlights of England games, usually about an hour or so after the end of the game they've just shown.
ANY NEW TECHNOLOGY?
BT have fired another missile at Sky with the launch of 4K Ultra High Definition coverage of selected games, starting with Sunday's Community Shield at Wembley.
Ultra HD has four times as many pixels as HD, meaning the picture quality should be a fair imitation of actually being there.
BT will use cutting-edge Sony cameras to film the game from a wider angle, while a proposed 'Owl Cam' takes pictures from two of these 4k cameras and then splices them together so you can see the whole pitch at once.
However, as with any new technology, it won't come cheap, with BT recommending a 55-inch 4k TV, which starts at £800. A set-top box to receive it would be £49 and the channel package is £15 a month.
