The Premier League is finally returning to our screens from Wednesday 17 June – and whether you like football or not, that also means the return of your Sky Sports and BT Sport bills.
But how will this work, and how much will you be expected to pay? The two broadcasting giants have now announced their different approaches to restarting subscriber payments, so we've explained how it will work for both Sky Sports and BT Sport below.
We're still clarifying what this means for those who subscribe through Virgin Media and TalkTalk, and we'll update this page when we get a response – but for now, here's what Sky Sports and BT Sport have said about how billing will change to take account of the Premier League's return.
- How to watch it all: see our Premier League live stream guide
Sky Sports subscribers
If you paused your Sky Sports account when the action stopped due to the global pandemic, you can expect to see some charges reappear in your June bill.
The good news is that Sky won't be charging for the whole month. Although billing will resume in June for Premier League and Sky Sports Golf subscribers (whether you're on Complete Sky Sports, single channel packs, or two- and three-channel packs), Sky says "you will not be charged for Sports for any days before 19 June 2020".
Although the Premier League will restart on 17 June with two postponed games, the first full round of fixtures won't kick off until the weekend of 19 June. Sky Sports will broadcast 64 of the remaining 92 Premier League games, and 39 of these will be exclusive, with a further 25 made available on its free-to-air 'Pick' channel.
While football and golf fans will start paying their Sky Sports subscriptions from mid-June, this isn't the case for those who've subscribed to the single Sky Sports F1 pack. If that's you, Sky says you "will not be charged until the first live 2020 Grand Prix".
BT Sport subscribers
Rather than allowing subscribers to pause payments during the early stages of global pandemic, BT Sport instead used a bill credit system. This allowed you to claim a two-month bill credit, or donate the equivalent to the NHS.
Because the Premier League is resuming halfway through the month on 17 June, BT Sport says it will be "offering customers a further bill credit to the value of 50% of their BT Sport monthly subscription".
How will this work? If you've already applied for a bill credit in the past, BT Sport says "you do not need to do anything – we will automatically apply another credit to the value of 50% of their BT Sport monthly subscription".
And it's the same for those who opted to donate their credit to the NHS – BT Sport says it will "automatically donate this additional credit to the NHS Charities Together Covid-19 Urgent Appeal on behalf of those customers who opted for their credit to be donated".
If you haven't already applied for a bill credit but want to take advantage of the 50% credit in June, you can apply from June 1 at the BT Sport support page.
Subscribe to BT Sport through Sky? Sky says that billing for BT Sport through Sky will resume in June and, like Sky Sports subscribers, "you won't be charged for any days before 19 June 2020".
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