Back in the dim mists of time, if you were both a football fan and really lucky you might possibly be able to catch a live match on the television.
Often it would involve Elton Welsby or Jim Beglin and the only touching of screens was accompanied by a tutting cameraman wiping the fingerprints off the monitor.
And then the Premier League arrived and football went stellar.
This coming season - even ignoring foreign satellite channels and dodgy streams - fans can watch a staggering 154 live top-flight matches. There's also matches from across Europe and the Football League, FA Cup, League Cup, Scottish and European matches, not to mention international matches and a World Cup next summer.
Sky will screen 116 of those matches, showing off the trademark gloss and production values on brand-news sets and with brand-new formats (and even Jamie Carragher jousting with last year's best pundit Gary Neville).
BT are the new noisy neighbours - boasting 38 live matches and trying to prove that it IS possible to compete meaningfully with Sky on the UK's favourite sport.
And if you want highlights then you can throw The Sun, BBC and The Times into the pot as well.
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Ultimately, you probably already know that you can watch football on your television with the right subscription, generally in glorious HD and possibly even in 3D should you care. You might, we hasten to mention, also actually go to a match.
But we've put together a list of alternative ways you can get your fill of Premier League footy this year; and they all involve using your shiny gadgets.
Watching on a Now TV box
Now TV Box - a low-cost streaming device that will give you access to Now TV
We really loved the £10 Now TV box, and, if you are only looking to watch the odd game then you might well be okay with paying the nominal fee for a Roku-like box and forking out another tenner for a day pass on Now TV to watch that day's Sky Sports output.
Alternatives to the alternative:
Now TV runs across many devices including the Xbox 360, PS4, iPad, iPhone, Roku and some Android devices. You can also run Now TV through a Roku box.
Watching The Goals on The Sun or Times' app on your PC
The Times - putting its paywall to use
Now they are hidden behind a News International paywall, The Sun and The Times are keen to give people a further reason to pay for their news, and bundling in goal clips is the latest venture.
The papers have created 'The Goals' hub where you can watch...well the goals, as well as post-match highlights and 'near-live' clips.
Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content. After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.
