With pitches being mowed, pies being readied and programmes hitting the printers, the 2015/16 Premier League season is almost upon us. Huzzah!
As excited as we are for another 9 months of footballing action, the new season brings with it something of a headache - the constant struggle of working out how to watch the live action without heading to the ground or spending a troubling amount of time down the pub.
With Sky and BT having recently splashed a staggering £5.18 billion on TV rights (yes, really), enjoying the beautiful game from the comfort of your living room isn't particularly cheap. There's also so many subscription plans, deals and caveated offers, that you need a PhD to decipher what it all means.
There's really no right or wrong answer as to which is the best deal, either. The games you enjoy, teams you support, how much you plan to watch, and your financial situation will all dictate which service is best for you, as will your current broadband deal.
So, as we carefully dodge the question of which is the best platform on which to watch the new football season, here's your definitive guide to how to can immerse yourself in all the action.
How to watch the 2015/16 football season on TV
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As has long been the case, Sky will again host more live Premier League games than any other broadcaster this season. Sky Sports' coverage will include 116 live games compared with the 38 being offered by BT Sport. While in footballing standards that score would mark a win for Sky, it's not just a simple numbers game.
Sky might have the rights to Monday Night Football, mid-week and Friday games, prime Saturday and Sunday kick-offs and 127 Football League fixtures, but this year BT has the trump card of exclusive Champions League coverage.
Very much a case of swings and roundabouts, neither service is going to limit you to just football coverage, either. Sign up to either service and you'll get a host of rugby content (QBE Internationals and European Cup on Sky, Premiership on BT), Motorsport (F1 for Sky, Moto GP for BT), golf, tennis and fighting sports.
In terms of pricing, joining the Sky Sports revolution will set you back the princely sum of £45.50 per month, assuming you're a new customer that is - that's £546 per year. Adding Sports to your existing Sky package costs 'just' £25.50 extra every 30 days, however.
If you're a fan of certain big clubs - Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United - Sky also offers access to dedicated club channels for an additional £7 per month, per club.
You can even add the BT Sport channels to your Sky package completely for free - although you will need to be an existing BT Broadband customer to make use of this offer. Not a BT Broadband customer but still want to add the BT Sport channels to your existing Sky plan? You can for an extra £19.99 per month - £23.99 if you want to enjoy the games in HD.
BT Sport's standalone prices are less clear-cut, coming bundled with the company's mass of broadband and TV packages - both of which have a variety of price points dependant on requirements and service limits.
If you're an existing BT Broadband customer, however, there's good news - you can watch BT Sport for free through a variety of different services and mediums.
If you're not taken by either Sky or BT's first-party plans, and want to enjoy all of the action, there is another solution - Virgin Media.
The UK's other quad-play giant might not create the content like its high-profile stable mates, but it does have deals with both to bring all Sky Sports and BT Sport content into one, easily accessible location - at a cost, of course.
The Virgin Media TV XL plan - which is available for as little as £26.25 per month - offers access to all BT Sport channels as standard, with more than 200 additional channels bundled in. Adding in the Sky Sports Collection will add a further £31.25 per month. That's a total of £57.50 per month, all in, for all the football in the land.
If, like many, you don't want to splash out the cash on a costly monthly subscription charge, you can still watch highlights of the weekend's games through the good ol' Beeb and that mainstay of football coverage, Match of the Day.
Lineker and co will be back on Saturday nights analysing the day's play, with Match of the Day 2 once again taking up a Sunday night slot to mop up the rest of the weekend's action.
Although Sky's 3D football coverage has long since been demoted to the reserves squad, BT is pushing into new tech avenues this season with BT Sport Ultra HD, the UK's first UHD 4K channel.
At present, the broadcaster will be showing one game a week in Ultra HD, a service that offers four times the pixel resolution as current Full HD broadcasts.
It's not quite as straightforward as owning a 4K TV and clicking on the correct channel, however. Accessing the UHD service will require a further £15 per month plan, a UHD compatible set-top box and a BT Infinity internet connection.
What is 4K TV? Here's everything you need to know.
How to watch the 2015/2016 Premier League season online
You don't have to be tied to your TV to enjoy the upcoming season of soccer; there'll be plenty of coverage going up online, too.
With the websites of every national newspaper, sports service and footy blog offering live text feeds, and Radio 5 Live bringing the action to your ears, even the big broadcasters have firmly adopted digital outputs.
You can enjoy all of the Sky Sports content without signing up to a costly subscription plan. No, we're not having you on, Sky's sister service, NOW TV, offers access to all eight Sky Sports channels as and when you want.
With Day (£6.99), Week (£10.99) and Month (£31.99) passes letting you enjoy the content, you can ensure you don't miss that must-see game without wasting a whole chunk of change on matches you're not interested in.
If you've signed up to Sky and BT's subscription service, however, you can use your log-in details to hit up their websites and watch all the TV-bound action right from your browser.
Sky is also offering 'near-live' clips of all the games, not just those with full TV coverage. These mini highlight packs will be available online within minutes of the real-world happenings.
Again, you don't have to pay for laptop and desktop-based footie coverage if you're looking to pinch the pennies. While you can watch Match of the Day live through the BBC Sport website, BBC iPlayer offers catch-up access to the staple of the football season.
On-demand access isn't instant, however. MotD shows airing on a Saturday night won't pop up online until midnight on the Monday following the show.
What's more, this being the internet, there are all manner of dodgy streams to be found, although we can't in all good consciousness recommend you shirk your responsibility to hand over considerable amounts of cash and seek out illegal content - that's a yellow card offence.
How to watch the 2015/2016 Premier League season on smartphone and tablet
Just because you're not lounging on a sofa on a Saturday afternoon doesn't mean you can't still watch all the footy action your sport-loving heart desires.
Both Sky and BT offer app-based access to their big screen content through the Sky Go and BT Sport apps respectively. Sky also offers smartphone and tablet access to those with NOW TV sports passes.
Both services are available for iOS and Android devices and require little more than your log-in details to run - just make sure you keep an eye on your mobile data limits if watching via 4G and not a Wi-Fi connection.
