MPs in the UK parliament voted on Tuesday night against making a select number of Premier League games available for fans to watch for free on television.
The very reason the Premier League exists is down to television and the revenue it brings, prompting the 22 founder clubs to breakaway from the traditional Football League in 1992.
The competition’s popularity has exploded around the world and fans in virtually every country can tune into live Premier League matches every week. But the Premier League is ironically less accessible to domestic fans, due to fewer live broadcasts and the greater cost.
UK fans can expect to pay upwards of £650 ($882.64) for live Premier League football across and , which does not include access to all 380 matches—Sky has upped its broadcast load to 225 for 2025–26, while TNT showed 52 games in 2024–25.
In the United States, carries one free Premier League broadcast per week, with the remaining live games split across and for a fraction of the cost that UK fans face.
In Spain, La Liga has been legally obliged to broadcast one match per week for free since 2022.
MPs from the Liberal Democrats had proposed 10 Premier League games each season should be free-to-air, essentially one per month. It was tabled as an amendment to the Football Governance Bill, legislation for an independent regulator to oversee England’s top five men’s leagues.
The Football Governance Bill was voted into law at parliament on Tuesday, but MPs opted to vote down the proposed amendment to adjust the ‘crown jewel’ list that would make at least some Premier League football available free.
In the UK, certain ‘crown jewel’ sporting events—including the World Cup—are protected so that they remain free for people to watch. The Premier League, by contrast, has always been behind a paywall, except only for a handful of games aired on the BBC during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I’m urging MPs of all stripes to back our amendment to tear down the paywall and make Premier League games available on free to air channels,” earlier said Max Wilkinson, Lib Dem MP and spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport.
“For too long, the jewel in the crown of British football has been locked behind an expensive barrier that keeps fans out while lining the pockets of broadcasters. Fans are being rinsed of every last penny to watch the beautiful game, while the next [Jude] Bellingham and [Lucy] Bronze are priced out of the chance to see football played at the very top level. That must end today—with a free-to-air revolution that gives the Premier League back to the country.”
