After seeing their initial agreement and subsequent deal with Setanta go south quickly after the Irish Pay per View Channel ceased operations back in early June, the Scottish Premier League yesterday announced (much to the dismay of the big three… more on that later) a 65 Million Pound deal with Sky and ESPN to show 60+ matches live over the next three years in the UK and Ireland.

Via Guardian 

The deal will last until the end of the 2011-12 season with the SPL having an option to extend the deal for a further two seasons.

“We are pleased that in just over three weeks we have been able to strike this deal,” said Lex Gold, the chairman of the SPL. “Sky and ESPN are two of the biggest names in sport broadcasting and they will bring first-class production standards to the table. We are looking forward to working with both in the coming years to raise the profile of the SPL for our clubs, fans and partners.”

The league had been looking for an alternative broadcasting deal following the collapse of Setanta’s UK operation. Last year Setanta agreed to pay £125m over four seasons to extend their deal with the SPL beyond 2010.

“There was no alternative proposal on the table,” said the St Mirren chairman Stewart Gilmour. “It wasn’t a unanimous vote, and I’m not prepared to go in that, but it was passed and so we just have to get on with it. We are in the middle of a tough financial situation and the league starts in four weeks’ time and that was the best and only deal on the table.”

The Rangers chief executive, Martin Bain, said this week that he had been in discussions with Celtic about buying the broadcasting rights themselves. However, a spokesman for the SPL said: “There was no alternative proposal brought forward by the Old Firm. We needed a vote of 8–4 and while we will not go into the exact voting, there was enough to secure the approval.”

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