Is NOW TV cheaper than Sky TV? That depends on what package you want

Is NOW TV cheaper than Sky? Yes, it is. The best Sky deal is currently £26 a month on an 18-month contract, whereas NOW TV's cheapest deal is currently £9.99 for two months with no contract. But there are big differences between what the two services offer and how they're delivered. Unless you buy a Sky Glass TV, Sky comes via a satellite dish; NOW TV is streamed or downloaded via broadband.

NOW TV has three membership options: Entertainment, Sports and Cinema. Entertainment is £9.99 a month, Cinema is £9.99 a month and Sports is £33.99 a month. Each option gives you a seven-day trial of Boost, which delivers full HD on up to three devices, and if you want to keep it after the trial ends it's £5 per month.

With NOW, you can access some but not all of Sky's channels: 15 channels including Sky Atlantic with the Entertainment membership, 11 Sky Cinema channels with Cinema and 11 Sky Sports channels with Sports – so that's 45 channels if you sign up for everything.

Sky costs more but delivers more too. Without add-ons such as Sky Cinema you're still getting over 300 channels, and there is a range of bundles to choose from – so for example Sky Q, Sky TV, Netflix and Sky Sports is £46 a month, the same bundle with Sky Cinema instead of Sports is £38 and Sky Q, Sky TV, Netflix and Kids is £32 a month.

So which is best? That depends on what matters to you. NOW TV is by far the cheapest option if you want to watch shows such as Yellowjackets without signing up for a long term contract or sticking a satellite dish on the side of your home, or if you want access to Sky's movie channels without taking out a full Sky TV package. Sky TV offers more but costs more too, especially when you start adding things such as Multiroom and the Kids package. That means the best buy really depends on what you want to watch and how much you're happy to pay to watch it.