Sky TV's stranglehold on premiership football is set to end with the Premier League offering the BBC and ITV the chance to restore the game to their screens for the first time in 11 years

The Premier League has announced a three-tier rights package that paves the way for up to three broadcasters to screen live TV games for the first time.

The move brings to an end BSkyB's exclusive grip on the game that has lasted since it dramatically snatched the rights from under the nose of the terrestrial broadcasters in 1992.

Three packages are on offer: one "gold" package of 38 games to be played on Sunday at 4 p.m., a second "silver" package of 38 Monday night games and a third "bronze" package of 62 games on Saturday at new kick-off times of 1 p.m. and 5.15 p.m.

The broadcaster that wins the gold package gets the first choice of the best games and can dictate who plays on Sunday.

The Monday night winner will have second pick, leaving the broadcaster that gets the Saturday games with the third and fourth choice of games.

The revolutionary deal will put more football on television than ever before, particularly as there is yet another package on offer allowing broadcasters to show complete games a few hours after they end.

This new package has been introduced to allay fears in Europe that not enough live games were being made available to broadcasters.

This would potentially mean the BBC or ITV could cherry-pick a game for replay at 10 p.m. on Saturday night.

Or, more likely, it could mean that Sky could offer fans the chance to follow their team throughout the season by screening every single match on a pay-per-view basis or an interactive service.

Until now the Premiership has only allowed highlights of games to be shown on the BBC's Match of the Day or on ITV's Premiership.

The new deal will mean 138 games will be screened on TV, up from 106 games under the current Sky live and pay-per-view package, as part of an overall £1.6 billion (€2.29 billion) deal that also includes highlights on ITV.

"The changes have been made as a result of a combination of things," said Mr Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League.

"It made sense to say here's a 38-game package because there are 38 games for each team in the season.

"Once you get down to third and fourth pick, there are more games to offset the balance," he said.

"Competition authorities are keen that the are not of prohibitive size; that they preclude certain bidders," he added. - (Guardian Service)