The day has finally arrived and the Premier League is about to kick off again on our screens – if we are all paying for the right subscription service, that is. Long gone are the days of free to air top flight footy in the UK, and in 2024 you can’t actually watch every single match on just one service.

While TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) and Amazon will show select matches throughout the season, it’s Sky Sports that will show the majority of matches and the one I think it makes most sense to go for.

However, it can be quite daunting to sign up to a Sky TV contract just to get Sky Sports. You often have to sign up to pay for at least 18 months, and if you only really want to catch the football then it can get quite expensive paying for a Sky box, satellite installation, and hundreds of other Sky channels that come with the package that you may not ever watch.

Sky currently has a deal on where you can get Sky TV with Sky Sports and Netflix for £43 per month for 24 months, which the provider is advertising as its “lowest price”. The bundle is for Sky Stream, which unlike Sky Q and other traditional Sky services, doesn’t work over satellite. Instead, the Sky Stream box runs over your home broadband connection to, you guessed it, stream content onto your telly.

Throwing in a Netflix subscription along with Sky TV for £43 isn’t too bad a deal given you also get Sky Sports. But I think I have a better way to watch Sky Sports that doesn’t get you stuck in a contract and could end up saving you money.

I was once a Sky Q subscriber. When I moved into my London flat I got a decent deal for 18 months of Sky Q with Sky TV and Netflix plus Sky Broadband but it did not include Sky Sports. I found this deeply irritating, and the ‘Superfast 35’ broadband connection had misleading branding in both name and number and was in fact very slow, only guaranteeing 25Mbs speeds.

When it came to the end of the contract, I decided to move to Community Fibre broadband as it cost much less and has a 1Gbps connection. I then opted to sign up to the Sky-owned Now TV sports package, which is a monthly subscription that gives you access to all 12 Sky Sports channels and now the newly-launched Sky Sports+ streams.

I watch using my Apple TV box but you can watch Now TV with your subscription wherever you can get the app – for example on your smart TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Roku streamer, phone or tablet.

Now TV is currently offering a ‘6-Month Saver Membership’ for its sport package that costs £26 for the first six months. You do have to agree to pay for at least six months, but that cost is £17 less per month than signing up to a lengthy Sky TV contract. After six months the price goes up to the regular £34.99, but this is still cheaper and more flexible for you, as you can cancel at any time.

It means I can watch every Premier League match shown on Sky Sports live from wherever I am; on the sofa at home in front of the TV, on my tablet at my friend’s house or on my phone on the bus home.

I also love being able to catch Formula One and all the year’s golf majors plus access to the Championship, League One, League Two, cricket and rugby internationals.

After my bad experience with a Sky contract I was wary of signing up to Now TV given it is owned by Sky, but the lack of contract, the competitive pricing and flexibility to cancel means I’ll be keeping my sport package rolling as the Premier League kicks off today.