Good news for Freeview viewers. It’s now possible to get Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 via a TV aerial. You don’t need Broadband, and you don’t need a satellite dish!
Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 are available on Freeview channels 41 and 42.
Following a ruling by the regulators OfCom, Sky has had to make their premium sport channels available to their competitors.
Sky Sports is already available on Virgin Media’s cable TV service, but is now being offered on BT Vision and Top Up TV:
Sky Sports on Freeview with Top Up TV
Top Up TV now offers Sky Sports on its digital TV service. To get Sky Sports 1 and 2, you will need a TV aerial and to be in a Freeview coverage area. You’ll need to get a special Top-Up TV box, that costs around £30.
Top Up TV offering offers a cheap way of getting Sky Sports 1 and 2, as well as ESPN, all without the need to take out a broadband account, or a long-term subscription.
You can order the set-top box and get a subscription card for the two Sky Sports channels, as well as ESPN, from www.topup.tv/sport
Note that you do need the special set-top box. Even if you have a TV set with a slot for a subscription card, you still need the box.
Sky Sports on BT Vision
BT Vision is now offering Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 via a TV aerial to BT Vision customers. To get BT Vision, you need to have a BT Broadband account. You get a high-spec hard disk recorder and access to an impressive library of on-demand TV shows, films and sport.
For full details on BT Vision, go to get.btvision.com
Limitations
Those serious about their sport will find that Sky’s satellite service does have more to offer – Extra sports channels (Sky Sports 3, Sky Sports 4 and Sky Sports News), and all of the Sky Sports channels in High Definition. There’s also interactive content, and with the Sky Go service, there’s Sky Sport on a P and some mobile phones.
For the ultimate Sporting experience, Sky’s the winner, but it comes at a price. Details of Sky’s Sporting package at sky.com/shop/tv/sports
If you have any questions about how to watch Sky Sports on Freeview, please let us know in the comments section below, and we’ll be happy to help.
Our location means that we cannot receive SKY satellite, plus we have only 1.5mg broadband via BT. Is top-up tv a realistic option to receive SKY sports? We do have Freeview but tv reception currently not brilliant albeit we are due to go digital next month
Advice much appreciated
Many thanks
Hi Lesley,
Top Up TV delivers Sky Sports over Freeview, so yes, it is a realistic option for you.
Sky Sports uses the same channel block as BBC Four, so the quality of Sky Sports should equal the quality of BBC Four
Its a rip off, end of!
I live in Aveton Gifford, Devon where we have a village booster transmitter. I changed to Bt vision and broadband (all good), but I was hoping to add sky sports.
They now tell me that the village transmitter does not broadcast the bundle of freeview channels that has sky sport on it. (Apparently the main station it relays, does)
How can I find out if -it ever will, or if it will, when? Who do I ask?
You need to contact the company that operates the relay transmitter. Do a Google for the transmitter name to find out who operates it, then use Google to find their phone number. If you’re having problems, let us know which relay you’re referring to, and we;ll try to find out for you.
Ive read a couple of articles recently about Radtv in the US and it’s ability to pick up low frequency TV signals within 30 miles of a transmitter.I may be wrong ( but my ability to find anything about this online true or false) leads me to suspect it’s hidden by pages of advertising.My understanding is that satellite broadcasters have under their contract terms have to broadcast their channels free to air via local ie BBC transmitter stations. However to meet the contractual obligations they transmit at a low frequency which are a limited in range and b cannot be picked up by a standard TV Arial. If I’m correct then a £35 box will give me everything legally
We have a free view tv and have tried the channels you mentioned but don’t get sky spirts. Do you have to pay for this and how much
Is it possible to get all sports channels on freeview or freestat by purchasing a box or does sky have the monopoly on the sport channels so that you have to pay regardless as I am a pensioner and money is tight.
Is there any way to get sky sports channels without a separate box? My father has dementia. He loves sport and currently has sky but often can’t operate it as the one remote works both the television and satellite box.
I have a Manhattan T3-R Freeview Play Smart 4K Digital TV Recorder, what l’d like to know is can l get sky sports 1 and 2 on it?
All – just get the NOW TV app (available on many Smart TV’s) and you can buy day or month passes for Sky Sports, Sky Movies etc. If you have an older Smart TV you may need to buy the NOW TV Box – which are only available second hand, but in abundance on eBay.
PLEASE CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOWMUCH WILL IT COST TO HAVE SKY SPORTS WITH A FREEVIEW BOX MANY THANKS.