BROADCASTING: Irish broadcaster Setanta yesterday broke BSkyB's stranglehold on live premiership soccer in Britain when they won two of the six packages of television rights put up for auction by the Premier League, at a cost of £392 million.

Sky had already been awarded three of the six packages, but were expected to succeed yesterday in their bids for two of the final three deals. Setanta, though, were awarded packages C and D, which will allow them to show 46 live Premier League games over the next three seasons.

Last week Sky secured three of the 23-game deals, but the bidding was said to be so close between them, Setanta and cable group NTL for the remaining packages the Premier League arranged a second round of bidding.

The European Commission's competition watchdog had threatened to take legal action against the Premier League if it failed to offer broadcasters, other than BSkyB, a "viable and meaningful" share of live coverage of matches.

As a result, the Premier League put six equal packages of 23 matches up for auction, but any one broadcaster could win only a maximum of five of the deals.

Sky, then, were widely anticipated to clinch five of the packages, but Setanta's success is a blow to the company which, in Britain, has had control of top-flight English football since 1992. Sky have, however, secured the rights to a third (92) of the live games that will be broadcast in Britain from 2007 to 2010, including the prime 4pm Sunday package which offers first choice of the fixture list, paying £1.7 billion for the four packages.

Setanta, which is available in the Republic of Ireland through the Sky, NTL and Chorus platforms, was founded in 1990 by its joint chief executives, Michael O'Rourke and Leonard Ryan, and last year sold 40 per cent of its stake to venture capital firm Benchmark Capital Europe.