EFL Play-Off Finals 2026: How to Watch All Three Wembley Finals on UK TV

Three Finals, One Weekend, One Broadcaster

By Monday night, three clubs will have won promotion and around £300m will have changed hands in projected revenue, most of it riding on the Championship final alone. The 2026 EFL play-off finals run back to back across the late May bank holiday weekend, all at Wembley, and every minute is on Sky Sports. If you only want the headline: Championship final Saturday, League One Sunday, League Two Monday, all on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football. Want to know what else is on across the weekend? Our football fixtures page lists every televised match with channel and start time.

The Three Finals at a Glance

All three finals are at Wembley Stadium and all three are live on Sky Sports. There is no free-to-air coverage of any EFL play-off final in the UK; Sky has held the live EFL rights for years and the play-offs are the centrepiece of that deal.

Final	Fixture	Date	Kick-off	Channel
Championship	Hull v Middlesbrough	Saturday 23 May	3:30pm	Sky Sports Main Event & Football
League One	Bolton v Stockport	Sunday 24 May	1:00pm	Sky Sports Main Event & Football
League Two	Salford v Notts County	Monday 25 May	3:00pm	Sky Sports Football

Coverage starts roughly an hour before each kick-off, so build-up for the Championship final begins around 2:30pm on the Saturday. Kick-off times and the channel split are confirmed on the EFL play-offs page ↗ and on Sky Sports' Championship hub ↗.

The Championship Final Is the One That Pays

The Championship play-off final is routinely described as the most lucrative single match in world football, and the label is earned rather than hype. Promotion to the Premier League is worth somewhere north of £170m to the winning club over the following years once you add central broadcast payments, commercial uplift and parachute money. That is why the build-up dwarfs the other two finals: a single 90 minutes (plus, more often than not, extra time and penalties) decides whether a club spends next season hosting Manchester City or travelling to Plymouth.

Hull and Middlesbrough are the two clubs left standing in 2026. Both have Premier League pedigree and both will treat this as the defining game of their season. For neutrals, it is the pick of the weekend; for the two fanbases, it is the only thing that matters.

How to Watch Without a Sky Subscription

You do not need a satellite dish or a long Sky contract to watch any of the three finals. The cleanest route for non-Sky homes is a NOW Sports Membership, which unlocks every Sky Sports channel through an app.

Option	What it covers	Best for
Sky TV (Sports package)	All three finals on Main Event and Football	Existing Sky customers
NOW Sports (Day Membership)	One day of Sky Sports, ideal for a single final	Watching just the Championship final
NOW Sports (Month Membership)	All three finals plus the rest of the weekend's Sky football	Following all three days
Sky Go	Same coverage on phone, tablet or laptop	Sky customers watching away from the TV
Virgin Media / EE TV	Sky Sports as part of a premium TV tier	Homes already on those platforms

If you only care about the Saturday Championship final, a one-day NOW pass is the cheapest legitimate way in. If you plan to watch all three across the weekend, a rolling Month Membership works out better value than three separate Day passes. You can buy either directly from NOW ↗.

Why None of It Is on the BBC or ITV

This is the single most common question every May, so it is worth being blunt: the EFL play-off finals are not on free-to-air television in the UK, and they have not been for years. Sky holds the live EFL broadcast rights, the play-offs included, and there is no parallel free-to-air carve-out the way the FA Cup final has on the BBC and ITV. The FA Cup is a knockout competition with protected listed-event status for its final; the EFL play-offs are not on that protected list, so they sit entirely behind Sky's paywall.

If you are at Wembley in person, the stadium's Championship final event page ↗ carries gate times, travel advice and bag policy. For everyone watching at home, Sky or NOW is the only live route.

How the Play-Offs Got Here

Each play-off works the same way across all three divisions. The clubs finishing in the top spots earn automatic promotion; the next four enter a two-legged semi-final bracket, and the two winners meet at Wembley. The Championship promotes its top two automatically and sends fourth to seventh into the play-offs. League One and League Two each promote their top three automatically, with fourth to seventh contesting the play-off place.

It is a format designed for television: a winner-takes-all final with maximum jeopardy, which is exactly why it anchors the end of Sky's EFL season. The semi-finals are gripping, but the finals are the showpiece, and all three landing on consecutive days makes the bank holiday weekend the busiest single stretch of the lower-league calendar.

Common Questions

What channel is the Championship play-off final on?

Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football, with coverage from around 2:30pm before the 3:30pm kick-off on Saturday 23 May. There is no BBC or ITV broadcast.

Can I watch the EFL play-off finals for free?

No. All three finals are exclusive to Sky Sports in the UK. The cheapest legitimate way to watch without Sky is a NOW Sports Day or Month Membership.

What time do all three finals kick off?

Championship: 3:30pm Saturday. League One: 1:00pm Sunday. League Two: 3:00pm Monday. All at Wembley, all on Sky Sports.

Are the finals on Sky Go?

Yes. Existing Sky Sports customers can stream all three on Sky Go at no extra cost on phones, tablets and laptops.

Which teams are in the 2026 finals?

Hull v Middlesbrough in the Championship, Bolton v Stockport in League One, and Salford v Notts County in League Two.

Plan the Rest of Your Weekend

The play-off finals are the headline, but they are not the only football on across the bank holiday. If you are mapping out a full weekend, our Premier League run-in guide covers the top-flight picture, our FA Cup final guide explains the free-to-air showpiece, and our sports streaming services comparison breaks down whether a NOW pass or a full Sky package makes more sense for how much football you actually watch.

For the exact televised matches on each day of the weekend, with channels and kick-off times, head to the football fixtures page. It updates daily, so it is the quickest way to see what is on alongside the three Wembley finals.