The bid is not expected to be as high as the 拢1.1bn Sky famously paid in 2000 for the current rights to Premiership matches, according to the Sunday Telegraph. However, Sky has in the past indicated it may be prepared to pay as much as 拢1bn to secure the rights.
However, whatever the size of the bid, Sky may be prevented from snaring all Premier League matches because the European Commission competition directorate in Brussels believes its stranglehold on TV rights is anti-competitive and wants to see more top-flight football on terrestrial TV.
To appease Brussels, the Premier League broke up the rights into three packages, a total of 138 live matches -- 32 more games than under the current deal. The top gold package is for first-choice games played on Sundays; the silver package is for second-choice Sunday games and the bronze winner will get the remainder.
There is nothing -- apart from Brussels -- stopping one broadcaster from scooping the lot.
The BBC is believed to be keen to get its hands on Premier League matches and will likely be disappointed by the news of Sky's bid. The public service broadcaster is thought to only have between 拢75m and 拢100m to spend on these games.
Channel 4 and Five are also thought to be interested in some games, but there is a question mark hanging over ITV's position because it is under pressure from shareholders to cut costs as ad revenues continue to slide.
BSkyB's bid puts the Football Association between a rock and hard place because it needs to keep Brussels happy, but at the same time Premier League clubs need to meet soaring players' salaries.
Last week, the BBC and BSkyB announced that they had jointly secured the live rights to all England home and FA Cup matches. Most of the games will be shown on the BBC, while Sky has taken a larger share of smaller games including women's and under-21s and under-18s matches.
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