The Premier League is back! Here's how to watch the opening weekend live

After a bumper summer of sport, the Premier League is back.

Champions Man City are on the hunt for an incredible fourth title in a row and seventh triumph in the last eight seasons. But Arsenal ran them very close last season and are likely to do so again, while Arne Slot’s new-look Liverpool and Chelsea under new boss Enzo Maresca can’t be ruled out.

Elsewhere, Tottenham and Man Utd will want to build after some promising signs, and can Aston Villa keep up their domestic form while juggling Champions League duties?

At the other end, how will the three promoted teams – Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton – fare in the top division? They’ll hope to avoid a repeat of last season, which saw all the promoted sides immediately relegated back to the Championship.

The 2023-24 Premier League season kicks off on Friday, and there are plenty of games worth watching from the opening weekend. Here’s how to do just that, whether you’re based in the UK, US or elsewhere.

What Premier League games are on TV this week?

All 10 matches are being shown live in the US, but you can only watch six in the UK.

Fri 16 Aug

• Man Utd vs Fulham – KO 8pm BST/3pm EDT/12pm PDT – Sky Sports/USA Network/Universo

Sat 17 Aug

• Ipswich vs Liverpool – KO 12.30pm BST/7.30am EDT/4.30am PDT – TNT Sports/USA Network/Universo
• Arsenal vs Wolves – KO 3pm BST/10am EDT/7am PDT – USA Network/Universo
• Everton vs Brighton – KO 3pm BST/10am EDT/7am PDT – Peacock
• Newcastle vs Southampton – KO 3pm BST/10am EDT/7am PDT – Peacock
• Nottingham Forest vs Bournemouth – KO 3pm BST/10am EDT/7am PDT – Peacock
• West Ham vs Aston Villa – KO 5.30pm BST/12.30pm EDT/9.30am PDT – NBC/Universo

Sun 18 Aug

• Brentford vs Crystal Palace – KO 2pm BST/9am EDT/6am PDT – Sky Sports/USA Network/Telemundo
• Chelsea vs Man City – KO 4.30pm BST/11.30am EDT/8.30am PDT – Sky Sports/Telemundo

Mon 19 Aug

• Leicester vs Tottenham – KO 8pm BST/3pm EDT/12pm PDT – Sky Sports/USA Network

How to watch the Premier League in the UK

In the UK, only 200 of the 380 games are shown live. Sky Sports has the majority of these, but there are also some on TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) and two full rounds of fixtures on Amazon Prime Video.

Sky Sports

You have several options when it comes to Sky Sports. The first is to get a TV package, which starts at £43 per month for 24 months, but includes Sky TV, Netflix and UHD.

If you don’t mind paying a monthly subscription for your TV, Sky Glass is also worth considering. You can currently get a 43-inch TV (48-month contract) with Sky Sports, Sky Entertainment and Netflix (Standard with Ads) on an 18-month contract for £62 per month with £10 upfront.

Alternatively, you can add the functionality to your existing TV via Sky Stream. It starts at £46 per month for an 18-month plan including Sky Entertainment, Netflix and Sky Sports.

All of the above include access on your phone, tablet and/or laptop via Sky Go.

That doesn’t apply to Sky’s Now streaming service, but it’s a more affordable option. A Now Sports membership (including all 11 Sky Sports channels) costs £34.99 per month at full price, but it’s currently down to £26 per month for the first six months.

You may also want to add Now Boost, which adds 1080p video (rather than the usual 720p), removes ads and lets you stream on up to two devices at the same time (instead of the usual one). After a one-month free trial, it costs £6 per month extra. Alternatively Now Ultra Boost, upgrades this to 4K and three devices simultaneously, though it costs £9 per month.

TNT Sports

BT Sport was rebranded as TNT Sports ahead of the 2023-24 season, but not much changed in terms of the plans available.

At full price, the cheapest package costs £20 per month on a monthly rolling contract, though you’re limited to the discovery+ app. However it also includes Eurosport 1 & 2 and the discovery+ Premium streaming service.

But if you’d rather stream all the action and don’t want a recordable TV box, it makes more sense to simply add TNT Sports to discovery+. That costs an extra £20 per month for existing BT Broadband customers, but you’ll need to get the monthly pass for £30.99 per month otherwise.

Amazon Prime Video

To access Prime Video’s live games, you’ll simply need to be subscribed to Amazon Prime in some capacity.

After a 30-day free trial, it costs £8.99 per month or £95 per year. But there are plenty of other benefits, including free next-day delivery on many items, unlimited photo storage and access to some music and games.

How to watch the Premier League in the US

In the US, NBC has the exclusive English-language rights to the Champions League. All 380 matches are broadcast live, across the main NBC channels, NBC-owned USA Network and its streaming service Peacock.

Peacock has most of the games, and it’s also the most affordable. It starts $7.99 per month/$79.99 per year for ‘Premium’, or $13.99 per month/$139.99 to step up to the ad-free ‘Premium Plus’. You can sign up for both on the Peacock website.

For NBC itself and USA Network, things are a little more complicated if you don’t want to pay for cable.

The most hassle-free way is to sign up for a live TV streaming services such as YouTube TV ($72.99 per month), Sling TV (requires $45 per month Sling Blue) or Hulu+ Live TV ($76.99 per month). None of these are cheap, but they offer plenty of other benefits.

How to watch the Premier League outside the UK and US

Before trying to watch UK or US TV from abroad, it’s worth checking which broadcaster has the rights to the Premier League where you’re based. See the full list of international broadcasters on the Premier League website.

But if you’re just visiting another country, it makes sense to access your UK or US subscription, which requires a VPN. We’re using NordVPN for the purposes of this tutorial, but there are plenty of great alternatives in our best VPN chart.

1.

Download the relevant VPN app

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Head to the download page for the VPN you’d like to install and click ‘Download App’. The likes of NordVPN are available on a range of devices.

2.

Connect to US or UK server

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Open the app and sign in to your account if necessary. Then, select any US or UK server and connect to it.

Depending on the service you’re using, it might look quite different to the above. But this should be relatively easy to find.

3.

Start watching as usual

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Head to the website or app you’d usually use to start watching. You should now be able to stream content as normal and without any restrictions.

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