FA the winner in bumper rights deal

The Football Association has secured a record deal for the rights to Premier League games, with BSkyB and BT paying seventy per cent more than the current package.

BSkyB and BT have the rights to broadcast Premier League football for three years from the start of the 2013/2014 season, paying a combined total of £3.018bn.

This compared with the £1.773bn package the FA agreed with Sky and ESPN in 2009.

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The result did not seem to please investors as BSkyB fell almost 7% and BT fell just under 3%.

Sky continues to hold the lion's share of the games, having secured 116 of the 154 games on offer.

BT picked up the rights to 38 games, elbowing out ESPN.

BSkyB is paying £760m a year while BT is paying £246m per season for its first Premier League broadcast rights.

The latter said it would launch a new football-focused channel to show the games.

"It will offer new interactive features when supplied over BT's fibre network and we will look to distribute it on other platforms," the telecoms firm said.

BSkyB's chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, said the very competitive tender process had resulted in certainty for the company and its customers.

"Whilst the cost is higher, we have capacity for this increase through the combination of excellent work on cost efficiency across the business and choices over other future spending," he said.

The absence of US-based sports broadcaster EPSN surprised some commentators.

"We made a strong bid that reflected the value of the rights to our business, and we thank the Premier League for the chance to participate," said an ESPN spokesman.