Sky & BT announce live Premier League games for January
SOTB
Sky Sports and BT Sport have confirmed the Barclays Premier League games they will televise in January as part of another packed schedule of live football across both networks.
Defending champions Manchester City host Arsenal and travel to current league leaders Chelsea in two of the matches selected for live broadcast, which includes 12 newly confirmed games in total for January and the start of February, in addition to the three New Year’s Day games which were announced in the previous set of live Premier League TV fixtures covering the festive period.
With the turn of the year marking the halfway point of the season, January will see two head-to-heads from last season’s top four exclusively live on Sky Sports, featuring Arsenal’s visit to Manchester City, then current league leaders Chelsea play host to Manuel Pellegrini’s side a fortnight later.
The ten live matches on Sky Sports during this period will see fifteen teams from the Premier League in action during the month, adding to the network’s schedule of live matches which also includes exclusively live coverage of the Capital One Cup semi-finals towards the end of January.
BT Sport kicks off the New Year with reigning champions Manchester City’s home tie against Sunderland and Chelsea’s trip to London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in a bumper double header to launch a packed January schedule for the broadcaster.
The two Premier League matches are the focal point of an action-packed start to a schedule of exclusively live matches on BT Sport during the month, four in the Premier League and at least six games in the Third and Fourth Rounds of the FA Cup.
In addition to the two live New Year’s Day announced previously, BT Sport will show exclusively live coverage of Sunderland’s home game against Liverpool, last season’s dramatic runners up, on January 10.
BT will also have the intriguing north-east meeting between Hull City and a resurgent Newcastle United exclusively live on January 31.
January’s bumper schedule of live matches follows a bumper festive period of live Premier League matches on both Sky Sports and BT Sport, which features 25 live games in total during December and New Year’s Day.
The 2014/15 season marks the second year of both broadcaster’s three-year multi-billion pound TV deal with the Premier League, with Sky again screening 116 live games from England’s top flight and BT showcasing 38 live matches during the course of the season.
BSkyB paid a record £2.3 billion for 116 live Premier League games for three years from 2013-2016, including 20 first picks from the 38 rounds of matches, while BT paid £758 million for 38 games, including 18 first picks, although Sky gets to choose when it wants to exercise its first pick choices.
In 2015, Sky Sports subscribers can watch 47 more live Premier League matches between February and May, making Sky the home to more than three quarters of all live televised fixtures over the remainder of the season.
Commenting on the new set of live games, Simon Green, head of BT Sport, said: “January is a great month to be a BT Sport viewer if you want to indulge in a feast of English football.
“We will be showing some superb clashes in the Barclays Premier League, starting with the current champions and followed by Chelsea, the early leaders this season.
“Then the focus switches to the third round of The FA Cup when the big guns from the Premier League join the competition. During the month, we will have six exclusively live matches from The FA Cup, plus replays.”
Full details of January’s live Premier League games on the box can be found below.
