About Now Sports

Now Sports

Now Sports is the sports channel family of Now TV, PCCW's pay-television service in Hong Kong. Based in Hong Kong, it broadcasts live international and local sport, including football, in Cantonese and English for Now TV subscribers. Channel listings place the family across the 630s of the Now TV electronic programme guide — Now Sports Prime at 630, Now Sports 1 to 7 at 631 to 637 and further sports services beyond — under PCCW ownership. Hong Kong's Communications Authority lists the Now Sports channels, including now Sports 647 in earlier listings, among the licensed pay-television channels receivable in Hong Kong.

Now Sports is best known in Hong Kong as the home of the English Premier League, whose rights Now TV has held for more than fifteen years, and of a wider portfolio of football, tennis, golf and other international sport carried for the Hong Kong market.

The family of channels

Now Sports is not a single channel but a family. Listings of Now TV channels record Now Sports Prime at 630 and Now Sports 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 at 631 through 637, with a further Now Sports 650 service and dedicated Premier League channels such as now BPL 627 used for live Barclays Premier League matches. Multiple simultaneous channels are essential to modern sports broadcasting: on a Premier League matchday several fixtures kick off at once, and a family of channels lets subscribers watch any of them live. The Communications Authority's licensed channel lists likewise record several Now Sports services rather than one.

Premier League rights

Now TV has been Hong Kong's Premier League broadcaster for over fifteen years. In September 2024 Sportcal reported that Now TV had retained the exclusive Hong Kong broadcast rights to the English Premier League in a three-year agreement running from the 2025-26 season through 2027-28, under which it shows all 380 Premier League matches each season through its linear service and the Now Player apps, with matches also available on delay through video on demand. The league's chief media officer, Paul Molnar, described Now TV as a dedicated and innovative partner delivering high-quality coverage. The previous renewal, in early 2022, had been estimated by GlobalData Sport at 53.8 million dollars annually.

Football beyond the Premier League

Premier League football anchors the service, but Now Sports' football portfolio is broader. Now TV held exclusive Hong Kong rights to UEFA Euro 2024, and its channel packages carry Spain's LaLiga — Now TV's own service pages state that it broadcasts LaLiga EA Sports matches in Hong Kong on pay TV for the 2025-2026 season and selected NBA games in the same season. Subscribers can also watch the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Turkish Süper Lig through beIN Sports channels on the platform, making the Now Sports ecosystem the principal home of European football in Hong Kong.

Tennis, golf and other sports

Sportcal's account of Now TV's rights portfolio describes a strong mix of tennis and golf alongside football, including broadcast rights for the US Open tennis championship for its 2024 edition. Now TV's service pages list the Australian Open and Roland Garros among the tennis available through beIN Sports on the platform, together with Formula 1. Coverage extends to local and Asian sport as listed in channel guides, including the J.League, CBA basketball and FIBA basketball in guides to the wider i-CABLE and pay-TV sports offering, while Now Sports' own channels concentrate on the premium international properties for which PCCW bids directly.

Formula 1 in 4K

Motor racing illustrates the family's technical development. Under an agreement between Now TV and beIN Sports, Formula 1 practice sessions, qualifying, sprint events and Grands Prix are carried on beIN Sports 1, channel 638, with Grands Prix also available in 4K on Now Sports 4K channels, with English commentary and Cantonese commentary by Daniel Chan and Ying On-bong. Viewers can watch on the move via the Now Player app or relive races through Now TV's on-demand service, and Now E subscribers with selected sports packs can watch Grands Prix live. Studio shows accompany every session from Friday practice to Sunday's race.

Now TV, PCCW and HKT

Now TV is Hong Kong's leading pay-TV service, launched in 2003 and operated by PCCW Media within the PCCW and HKT group. HKT describes Now TV as its media entertainment arm, offering live sporting events and entertainment through linear channels and the companion apps Now Player, Now Sports and Now Player Junior. Financial reporting for the first half of 2021 recorded 1.352 million Now TV clients. Sport is central to that business: exclusive rights, above all the Premier League, are the principal reason households subscribe, and the Now Sports channels are where those rights are exercised.

How subscribers watch

Subscribers reach Now Sports through the Now TV set-top service and the Now Player and Now Sports applications on phones, tablets and smart televisions. Sports are sold in packs — service pages name Super Sports Pack Plus, Variety Sports Pack, Now Sports Plus Pack and beIN Sports Pack among the combinations carrying Formula 1 — and individual competitions have also been sold with event passes. Designated Premier League matches of the 2025-26 season are delivered in 4K. On-demand replays let viewers catch up after broadcast, reflecting how Hong Kong audiences, in a time zone eight hours ahead of Britain, often watch European sport late at night or the next morning.

Cantonese and English presentation

Now Sports broadcasts in Cantonese and English. Dual-language presentation is a defining feature of Hong Kong sports television: international feeds arrive with English commentary, while local presentation teams and Cantonese commentators — such as the Formula 1 pairing named in the beIN agreement coverage — serve the majority audience. Studio presentation around Premier League matches, with local punditry, similarly localises a global product. This bilingual, locally presented model is a large part of why the rights-holder's coverage is valued by the Premier League itself, whose media chief praised the quality and innovation of Now TV's presentation on renewing the deal.

The service in context

Now Sports is the sporting heart of Hong Kong pay television. Built as a multi-channel family in the 630s of the Now TV guide so that simultaneous live events can all be shown, sustained by more than fifteen years of Premier League exclusivity at a reported cost of tens of millions of dollars a year, and extended into tennis, golf and 4K Formula 1, it shows how a telecommunications group uses sport to anchor a media platform. For Hong Kong fans, the names are interchangeable in everyday speech: watching the Premier League in Hong Kong means watching Now Sports.

Sport as the engine of Hong Kong pay television

["The economics behind Now Sports are visible in the figures reported around its rights deals. GlobalData Sport estimated the previous Premier League cycle at 53.8 million dollars a year for Hong Kong alone — a small territory paying at a level that reflects both its wealth and the intensity of its football culture — and the 2024 renewal keeps all 380 matches a season on Now TV through 2027-28, extending PCCW's stewardship beyond eighteen years. Rights of that value explain the family's structure: multiple channels in the 630s exist because a single channel cannot honour a 380-match promise on ten-match weekends, and 4K production, Cantonese studio shows and app streaming exist because subscribers paying premium prices expect them. HKT's results reporting, which credited Now TV's pay-TV growth in 2021 partly to its exclusive UEFA Euro 2020 coverage and recorded 1.352 million clients, shows the same mechanism at group level: exclusive sport drives subscriptions, advertising and retention across the whole platform, including its broadband and streaming products. Now Sports is therefore best understood not as a set of channels that happen to show sport, but as the commercial engine of Hong Kong's largest pay-television business — the content for which the platform's technology, from set-top boxes to the Now Sports app, was principally built."]