When we learned that viewing figures for live football had fallen , we asked our readers whether they had stopped watching or just stopped paying. Hundreds of you replied and most agreed that TV subscriptions do not offer value for money

The viewing figures are in and the news is not good for the TV companies: fewer people are watching televised live games than they were last season. Sky’s early-season ratings are down by a fifth and BT’s Champions League coverage isn’t picking up the slack. But are people watching less live football or just avoiding the cost of subscription fees?

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We asked our readers about their viewing habits and more than 500 people replied. They painted a complicated picture. Some fans have stopped watching football as they are fed up with the focus on money, celebrity, hype and melodrama, while others still want to watch games but can’t bring themselves to pay for Sky and BT. Some go to the pub and some wait for Match of the Day, but an increasing number of supporters are turning to online streaming sites and boxes. Unless the TV companies offer deals that less expensive and more flexible, a growing number of these fans will eschew the old subscription model and watch football online for free. Over to you, Sky and BT.

Having to buy both Sky and BT Sport was just too much. There are fantastic, free streams out there and I doubt anyone feels any guilt in using these rather than paying the same price as a Premier League season ticket to watch live games on TV. Even my 78-year old father streams his games now. Mike Benet

I refuse to pay Sky’s full price for sports. If they won’t give me a deal, I openly tell the advisor on the other end of the phone I’ll be using their own broadband to pick up their channels for nothing. Lo and behold they suddenly can’t do enough to keep me. Play them at their own game. Andrew

The cost is ridiculous. If I get a Sky or BT subscription I still don’t get all the televised games. I go to the pub for a match I really want to see, or look for a pirated feed on the web. It’s hard to feel guilty about screwing a few quid out of BT or Sky! I would buy a pay-per-view deal that let me dip in and out for any given match. Gareth Duggan

When football streams are so accessible these days it’s hard to justify paying the ridiculous amount of money Sky charge. I suspect a lot of other people avoid paying for Sky by buying Kodi boxes – a one-off payment that gives you access to all Sky and BT sports channels. Andy Maynard

I watch as much as ever, streaming all all my matches. One friend has a “dodgy box” so We go to his to watch big games … or the pub.Tom Lalor

I’ve watched more football this season but all on illegal streams. I had BT sport and Sky and watched them online, but using streams is easier and often better quality – and doesn’t cost me £50 a month. I also get the 3pm kick-offs. Dan

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I use illegal streaming sites. I wish the TV companies would let me pay for exactly what I want to watch. I don’t want to be paying £60-plus for Sky Sports and BT Sport. I already have Netflix and Amazon, so I don’t want the cost of films and TV shows that I have little interest in watching bundled into the price. Packages need to be more flexible. Theo Sakyi

I’m frustrated by the fact that I have to pay Sky and BT to ensure watching a regular stream of Arsenal games. This isn’t competition, its just a rip-off, but I refuse to watch it “free” online because that is stealing. Although, the more the landscape gets fragmented and I’m expected to pay multiple providers (how long till Virgin gets “exclusive” football games?) then it does become more tempting. Tom Wylie

While I don’t begrudge other folk their wages, as someone who puts an honest shift in working with young autistic kids, it is hard not to feel disconnected from watching people who earn more in a week than I do in four years, so a “loyalty” to spend 90 minutes supporting blindly is no longer there. I also find the brilliant coverage on podcasts available these days (supplemented with evening highlights) hits the spot nicely. Tomas Ashton

Watching England in the summer was almost the final straw. Then all the disgusting amount of money spent in the summer transfer window was the final straw. Tony Brooks

I realised I was part of a vicious circle. I was being asked to pay more so Sky could bid more for TV rights and players/clubs could get richer. Shaun Savory

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Competition between BT and Sky drove the overall value of the live Premier League TV rights to more than £5.14bn over three seasons. Photograph: John Sibley/Reuters

I find other TV more entertaining and more affordable. The Premier League peaked when satellite TV was king and dial-up broadband was still finding a place in the home. There was nothing else worth watching unless you’d taped it. Now I have Netflix and the like at my disposal. Why would I pay for a bloated cable package to sit through another 0-0 featuring José Mourinho? Anonymous

I’ve always watched football illegally via streams and always resisted shelling out for expensive satellite packages on what I like to think is some anarchist principle, but may just be tightness. This season I’ve decided to abandon the stream and now go to the pub to watch. I’m fairly happy for my subscription fee to be the few pints I’ll drink during the match. It’s more social this way and Murdoch still isn’t getting anything from me (directly). Gregory Miller



It’s be becoming increasingly difficult to make a legitimate argument for the fees charged when the product in the case of the Premier League is not as strong as it once was. The Fifa scandals have also harmed the game. Jason Salt

A nine-month subscription costs £396 and a season ticket at my football club costs £300. That is a very, very easy decision in my eyes. Anonymous



I watch the 3pm kick-offs on a Kodi box. Anonymous

I occasionally use streams but wouldn’t pay for it. After being obsessed for many years, I reached my mid forties and just slid away from the televised product. I still play seven-a-side football and very occasionally go to the stadium but the hype just doesn’t do it for me anymore and I find it hard to concentrate on a 90-minute game on the TV. David Brock

I use streaming via Kodi for the 3pm kick-offs, which are mostly very good quality. If I find that I can watch the games at a decent quality, I will probably end up cancelling Sky Sports and BT. S BT

I just moved to England after over a decade in Italy and Germany. The experience of watching live football here simply doesn’t come close to matching the experiences I’m used to. English football seems to think of itself as the be-all and end-all, but in reality its entertainment value lies from the massive cloud of ignorance and hubris it lives inside. Stephen Glennon

I cancelled my Sky subscription last week. Ultimately it’s not good value when I just don’t get the buzz from it any more. The Premier League is very exciting this year but Match of the Day and BT Sport cover most of what I want to watch. Dougal Hawes

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Some viewers find that the coverage by Match of the Day provides the necessary football fix each week. Photograph: Guy Levy/BBC/PA

The TV companies should offer an “opt in” service that allows you to pick and choose the leagues you’d like to watch. I support Celtic and have very little interest in the focus on the Premier League and, let’s be honest, the games are torture to watch. Paul Band

The Premier League prides itself on being “the best league in the world” but they are average games of football – for the most part – with woeful atmosphere. I don’t recognise the fanbase and I don’t recognise the overpaid players. Darren Holland

I stopped paying the Sky subcription as it wasn’t good value for money and they barely showed my team play. I stream home games and started going to away games again as they’re now slightly cheaper at £30 and more enjoyable than watching from an armchair. Sky should charge less and broadcast every game on pay-per-view. Ben Ashby

Big increases in quality and duration of game highlights in the last few years have made live football seem slightly tedious and boring. Highlights cut out the frustrating aspects of football such as time-wasting and dead periods when nothing of note happens. It’s an easy choice to leave live football behind. Nick Byrne

It’s not the early 1990s when TV viewing with a satellite dish was the only option. The company is subsidised by the over 30s who pay full whack for full packages but, like music, hardly any under 30s will pay for it, which is not sustainable in the long term. Dave Robson

We are at the point where I could find a stream as good as Sky in less than five minutes. I would pay for a package to view all of my club’s games. Considering the endless options for consuming media these days, it seems beyond shortsighted not to have an option available like this. I happily pay for Netflix and Spotify as I feel there is value. There is no similar option for football, so I will find other ways to view it. DJ OC

I stream 80% of football on an Amazon Fire Stick with Kodi installed. A large number of friends also do this. I would be interested in a sports (or even football) only Sky offering. I’m not short of cash, but I don’t see the value in paying for football at the moment. Oliver

I’d rather pay a tenner and watch a local team live at 3pm on a Saturday. No points for a draw would ensure more attacking football – if I’m paying to watch it on TV I want the excitement of both teams going for a win. Don Pike

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Some supporters would rather get out and enjoy the fresh air on a Saturday in front of their local team. Photograph: Colin McPherson

I was paying £100 a month for Virgin with sports and movies, plus broadband. I now pay £25 for broadband, Freeview and Netflix. Subscriptions need to be cheaper or more flexible, such as subscribing for your own team or reasonable one-off fees – a few pounds per match. Chris Boyle

The split of Sky and BT makes it difficult to decide who to pay for. I went with Sky and find myself not tuning in as much as before because they don’t have all the big games. Packages should be all-inclusive. Seanpaul Walsh

The coverage treats you like an idiot. Too much hype, pointless stats and overblown reactions to a loss by a big team; mini-ruts, crises and it’s not even November, so they have to ramp up the games to movie proportions. Liverpool v Manchester United was borderline hysteria, a trend that’s turning football away from actually understanding the game and focussing on personality. Daft. I tolerate the cost as I am in love with the game, but I respect and admire why people are leaving it. I hope the trend continues, so it will bring prices down. Buffy Lovekin

When games are repeatedly hyped up, only to let viewers down, it’s going to take an effect. Call it boredom, call it viewer fatigue. It’s definitely happening. Anonymous

I am averse to paying huge sums. It was free when I was a kid and you got a Sunday afternoon game and maybe a midweek European game. That’s all you needed. Matthew Bonnett

I’m watching more this season as I stream it for free through an android box and paying absolutely nothing. Anonymous



I’m 61 and I just can’t be arsed any more. I decided my £65 Sky subscription was better in my pocket rather than Rupert Murdoch’s. Also, watching players who are over-paid, over-rated and under-achieving turned me off. Austin Baird

I would pay a reasonable price (£2 or £3) for the games I watch – isn’t it better to get get some revenue rather than just forcing everyone online? Omar Parry Kent

I cancelled my Sky and BT subscriptions following the poor quality of play. Most of the time teams are passing the ball across the pitch or going backwards in order to keep possession. Very rarely do players try to beat a defender, preferring instead to pass back and start again. Very boring! All this from multimillionaires. Anonymous

Next month I will experience another price increase of £3.95 which will finally make me cancel my contract. It’s not value for money. As much as Sky and BT try to big it up, there were very few games last season that I can remember really enjoying. Holt Alan

I find the frequency of live football off-putting. We now have Premier League matches Friday to Monday, Champions League matches Tuesday to Wednesday and Europa League matches Thursday. Matches every day of the week is overkill and diminishes the excitement of live sport. Tom Blackmore

I’ve probably watched the same amount of live footage but now I just stream so my viewership would no longer be counted in the figures. Seamus Amadan

The format of so-called Super Sundays with an hour of montages and build-up before a game for what is essentially just another game of football has become tedious and exhausted. The costs are extortionate considering every game is available by other means. I watch all football online using the various streaming services available. Most of the streams are near perfect if you know where to look. Archie Hamilton

I watch through live streams but if there was a Netflix style service for streaming football I would happily purchase it. Dave O Sullivan

The pricing structure needs to be more flexible, like Netflix. If there has to be subscriptions, they should be truly competitive - the exclusivity arrangements are shockingly bad value for the fans. Euan Lawson

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I want to be able to buy an online season ticket to watch a single club home and away in all of its competitions. I would willingly pay a premium for this. Andrew K

I was put off by the inflated price and a growing resentment of the kind of money being paid to footballers in general. My wages have decreased in the last six years! Now I watch it online for free. Marko Dullis

Sky Sports and BT Sport costs £90 or more per month - £1,000 a year – they are kidding themselves if they don’t think this market is price sensitive, especially when alternatives, however illegitimate, are available. With streaming so readily available, albeit illegally, why would you pay? Dr Feelgood



I gave up my Sky subscription in August as I was tired of all the nonsense that surrounds the game – average players being paid millions and being told it’s the best league in the world. I am a season ticket holder at a League Two club and enjoy that much more than the Premier League. Stephen Parnham

Sky’s “Red Monday” and “The Return”, Jesus wept. They seem to have mistakenly appointed a social-media obsessed idiot who thinks fans need matches to have a title to interest them. It’s condescending and ridiculous. Any more and I’ll drop the subscription. I really don’t need a football match to be given a sub-soap opera cringe-inducing “title”. Paul Dowd

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Many don’t see the value in a Sky Sports or a BT Sport subscription Photograph: Alex Morton/Getty Images

I resented paying for it and felt I was contributing to the whole overblown, overpaid circus. I cancelled my Sky subscription last week. When watching, I’ve become disillusioned by player attitudes, varying degree of commitment and negative play. I’m also tired of the cult of managers as celebrities. Mike Daines

I dropped Sky last year. It was enlightening to see the number of deals they offered to try get me to change my mind. It almost smacked of desperation and made me question why they couldn’t just lower the price anyway. Robert Hall

I cancelled my Sky Sports subscription as the cost of watching on TV has kept increasingly and BT has the Champions League. I could not justify cost anymore and have just watched a couple of big games in the pub. I would pay for a season ticket for my team. Matt

The Premier League has a long tail of utterly mediocre identikit teams. With the increased number of games shown, a good proportion of them are unattractive. Frank Atkinson

I do go down to the local pub where you can share a bit of atmosphere and generally enjoy the down-to-earth opinions of fellow supporters, however even now landlords are rightly complaining of the cost of showing games. Graham Phillipson

I am a fan of lower league football and pay £30 a year for the “Player” service, which posts full matches of my club’s games, as well as interviews with players and staff. It’s far, far more worthwhile than however much for Sky and BT. There are so many high quality streams available that it makes very little sense to pay £100 a month to watch on a TV when you can just hook a laptop up with a HDMI cable. Joe O’C

I’ve stopped paying for it as I can stream pretty much any game to my smart TV for free. I would come back if the TV services charged less and had considerably less advertising. Anonymous

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The only ones to lose out on the added competition of BT Sport over the last few years have been the viewers. The quality of the Premier League has dropped and the increase of money has alienated the fans even more. Grant Nicol

I’m watching more now as I have a box that gives me virtually every sports channel in the world. I watch my football via NBC Sports Network. Manchester Daz



I’ve fallen out of love with it completely. Too much feigning injury, too many tantrums by players and managers, blatant disrespect for the ref, too few homegrown players in the Premier League, too many changes of manager on a whim. I could go on… Anonymous