By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent
Sky has won the rights to show 126 live Premier League matches per season for three years from 2016-17 after winning the rights to five packages of games.
The broadcaster, which owns Sky News, won the rights to games kicking off at 12.30pm on Saturdays, 28 games on Sunday at 1.30pm and 28 at 4pm.
A further 28 matches split between Monday and for the first time Friday evenings, and 14 games divided between Bank Holidays and Sundays, were also part of the packages.
The Sky matches are part of a record-breaking broadcast deal that will see Premier League clubs receive a record revenue of £5.136bn, a 70% increase on the current deal.
After an intensely competitive auction that went to two rounds of closed bids, Sky and BT agreed to pay the equivalent of £10m per game for the right to screen live matches over three seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.
The deal represents a £2.118bn increase on the £3.018bn Sky and BT agreed to pay for their current three-year rights deal, which expires at the end of next season.
Jeremy Darroch, Sky's Group Chief Executive, said: "This is a good result and confirms that Sky is the unrivalled choice for sports fans.
"We went into the Premier League auction with a clear objective and are pleased to have secured the rights that we wanted.
"Our strong performance across the board gives us financial strength and flexibility. We have a clear plan to absorb the cost of the new Premier League deal while delivering our financial plans."
Under the new deal Sky will pay £4.176bn to show 126 games each season. The remaining rights, which include Saturday evening and midweek matches, were secured by BT for £960m.
Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, welcomed the deal.
He said: "It is an endorsement of what the Barclays Premier League delivers that these broadcast partnerships have been extended and enhanced today.
"We are grateful for the continued belief that Sky Sports and BT Sport have in the Premier League and our clubs, both as a sporting competition and organisations to work with."
The broadcasters were competing to buy the rights to 168 games a season, divided in seven packages of matches including various kick-off slots Friday evening and the right for broadcaster to have first or second choices of matches.
There were five packages of 28 games and two of 14 games each, with no broadcaster able to purchase more than 126 games.
The record-breaking deal means the Premier League is now the second most valuable sporting competition in the world, with only the NFL generating more revenue from broadcast contracts.
The deal emphasises the popularity of the Premier League and the power of its brand.
The competition has seen a huge increase in the value of its rights since it was founded in 1992, when Sky paid £191m for a five-year deal to show 60 matches per season.
By 2001 that had increased to £1.75bn over three years, and in 2012 the league secured a 71% increase in its value to more than £3bn for 154 games a year, or £6.5m per match.
The major beneficiaries will be the clubs and players. Under the current deal even the club finishing bottom of the league is guaranteed £60m, enough to ensure that all 20 Premier League clubs are ranked among the richest 40 clubs in Europe.
The league says its distribution of the income means it is the most equitable and competitive in world football, with a ratio of 1-1.6 between the top and bottom clubs.
Players can look forward to an increase in wages in line with the rise in value of the deal as clubs compete for the best talent.
Currently the average Premier League player earns around £40,000-a-week, or £2.08m-a-year, with the very best players earning more than five times as much.
The deal is likely to be just the start of the good news for clubs.
The league will now begin the process of selling its international rights, which generated a further £2.28bn in the last rights sale, nudging the total from all broadcast rights, including highlights, above £5.5bn.
That figure is likely to be eclipsed when the sales process concludes later this year.
The deal will see the clubs come under pressure from supporters' groups and politicians to ensure some of the vast wealth is distributed to the grassroots game and lower leagues, as well as to fund a reduction in ticket prices for match-going fans.
John Petter, BT Consumer CEO, said: "I am pleased we will be showing Premier League football for a further three years and that we have secured the prime Saturday evening slot.
"These new rights will enhance our existing schedule of football, rugby and other international sport."
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