Premier League Set For Rights Process
The Premier League has announced its intention to open the bidding process for the next domestic TV rights contracts for the three-year period from the 2010/11 season through to 2012/13 within the near future.
The English top-flight has stated its intention to launch the invitation to tender to all broadcasters to bid for the three-year rights packages. The tender process has not as yet officially begun as this is merely an announcement of the intention to open the process shortly.
The league banked £1.8bn from BSkyB (£1.314m), Setanta (£392m) and BBC (£105m) for the current three-year broadcasting deal which still has more than a year to run, and hopes that an interest from the US broadcast giant ESPN will help retain competition for the rights.
Under an agreement with the European Commission that lasts until 2013, the Premier League cannot sell all their live packages to a single broadcaster.
