FREEVIEW users will have a premium sport treat on their TVs tomorrow from Sky.
The broadcaster’s free Sky Mix channel will offer the first day of a major tournament to everyone, despite usually being paid-for on Sky Sports.
Sky Mix can be found on Freeview channel 11[/caption]
From 7pm to 11pm on Thursday, the channel will show the opening of the Premier League Darts, live from Belfast.
Tomorrow’s broadcast is expected to feature teen darts superstar Luke Littler and Dutch legend Michael van Gerwen among others.
Of course, Sky and Virgin Media customers who don’t pay for sports upgrades can benefit too by watching Sky Mix or Sky Showcase.
But the free launch is for tomorrow (Thursday) only – if you fancy watching the rest of the tournament you’ll need to add Sky Sports to your subscription.
Coverage will continue on Sky’s dedicated darts channel, Sky Sports Darts.
The move comes amid a huge spike in darts interest, with the 2024/25 World Darts Championship seeing a 29 per cent increase in TV audience compared to the previous year.
Some 4.8million watched the final between Luke Humphries and Luke Littler.
Sky has just extended a deal with the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) to broadcast the World Darts Championship until 2030.
Sky Mix largely airs classic shows but also has some Sky Originals.
The channel can be found on number 11 on Freeview and 141 on Freesat.
Sky customers can access it in HD on 151 via satellite and 158 on Sky Glass / Sky Stream (or 154 in ROI).
Virgin Media customers can also watch in HD on channel 135.
Premier League Darts 2025 dates
The Premier League Darts 2025 will be played weekly every Thursday, across the UK with a couple of nights in Europe.
- Night One – Feb 6 – Belfast
- Night Two – Feb 13 – Glasgow
- Night Three – Feb 20 – Dublin
- Night Four – Feb 27 – Exeter
- Night Five – Mar 6 – Brighton
- Night Six – Mar 13 – Nottingham
- Night Seven – Mar 20 – Cardiff
- Night Eight – Mar 27 – Newcastle
- Night Nine – Apr 3 – Berlin
- Night Ten – Apr 10 – Manchester
- Night 11 – Apr 17 – Rotterdam
- Night 12 – Apr 24 – Liverpool
- Night 13 – May 1 – Birmingham
- Night 14 – May 8 – Leeds
- Night 15 – May 15 – Aberdeen
- Night 16 – May 22 – Sheffield
- Play-offs – May 29 – London
More free sport for Freeview
Eurosport recently announced that it is leaving the UK after 35 years with much of its content set to move to TNT Sports.
But bosses from owner Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) have said some programming will appear on its free channel, Quest, meaning those who only have Freeview are in for a boost.
Quest will air every MotoGP Sprint race, as well as a new weekly cycling show, and highlights of the Giro d’Italia and La Vuelta a España.
WBD Sports Europe chief Scott Young has said “parts” of the Tour de France will be shown on Quest too.
The changes are set to come into effect on February 28, when Eurosport will close down.
Stream swapping – the easy way to cut your bills?
Here’s what Sean Keach, The Sun’s Head of Technology and Science, thinks…
It’s no secret that TV streaming apps are costing more and more.
Not only are prices shooting up, but we find ourselves asked to pay for an increasing number of apps and services.
And when you combine those TV bills with your music streaming, mobile and internet fees, and every other drain on your bank account, it all starts to get a bit much.
One of the best ways to cut your TV bills is to simply cancel all of your streaming subscriptions and only sign up to one per month.
Pick an app like Netflix, Disney+, or Apple TV+ and smash through all of the content you want to watch on that app.
Then the next month, swap to something else.
And once you’ve done them all, you can cycle back to the start again.
It’s an easy way to avoid forking out for a rolling library of streaming apps with more content than you could possibly watch.
Also don’t forget that paid-for streaming isn’t the only game in town.
There are loads of apps that don’t cost a penny to enjoy, and downloading a few will unlock thousands of live TV channels plus tens of thousands of movies and shows.
Try apps like Tubi, The Roku Channel, Plex, and Pluto TV to get some ad-supported television without having to pay any monthly fees.
