What is Pick TV? How to watch the Premier League free-to-air
It's attracted a huge audience since airing free Premier League games – but what is Pick TV?
Pick TV is unlikely to be a channel you're familiar with or have even heard of before this summer, but it's been a permanent fixture for the nation in lockdown.
As part of the push to get free-to-air Premier League games, Sky chose the little-known Freeview channel to be the lucky broadcaster of 25 of their Premier League fixtures – and has smashed all of the channel's viewing records in the process.
Pick TV is far more than a one-off Premier League platform, and has been around a lot longer than you'd think.
What is Pick TV?
Pick TV may be more familiar to some as Sky Three, the channel's original name when it launched as Sky's first free-to-air channel in 2005.
It essentially allowed Freeview viewers a taster of Sky's paid programming, and would air repeats of popular Sky One shows such as Futurama, Road Wars, and Brainiac.
Sky Three also aired premium US imports such as 24 and Prison Break on Freeview for the first time, until the launch of Sky Atlantic in 2011 which replaced Sky Three's slot.
Sky Three was subsequently rebranded as Pick, and moved to its current Sky channel of 159.
Nowadays Pick continues to air older content from Sky channels, as well as a few shows of its own such as Z Nation - and, of course, a little something called the 2019/20 Premier League.
How to watch Pick TV
Unlike most usual Premier League broadcasts, there's no need to get involved with paid contracts or subscription services - all you need is access to Freeview.
Once you have Freeview set up on your set-top box or TV, it's simply a matter of putting in the correct channel number and voila, you'll have access to over 30 hours of free Premier League fixtures.
Pick can be found on the following channel numbers:
Sky
Pick HD: Channel 159
Pick SD: Channel 895
Virgin Media
Pick HD: Channel 165
Freeview
Pick SD: Channel 11
Freesat
Pick HD: Channel 147
Sky customers can also watch Pick TV on the Sky Go app.
