The English Premier League announced on Friday it raised 1.782 billion pounds ($2.58 billion; euro2 billion) in the sale of domestic broadcast rights for the 2010-13 seasons, with satellite broadcaster BSkyB expanding its control over coverage of the world's most popular football league.

The league sold the rights in six packages covering a total of 138 games, with Sky securing the maximum five packages allowed under European rules for 1.623 billion pounds. Irish-based Setanta bought the remaining package.

The new deal surpasses the 1.76 billion pounds in domestic rights fees for the current three-year period by about 5 percent, another sign that English football continues to thrive despite the recession.

"We are very pleased and relieved at the outcome. These are not necessarily the best economic times we could do this," Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said. "This gives the clubs medium-term stability. The clubs can plan knowing this is the lion's share of their income ... (and) a stable base from which they can plan for the future with certainty."

Earlier this week, Sky _ controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. _ retained four of the six rights packages. Bidding for the final two packages went to a second round.

Sky holds four and Setanta two of the six packages under the current three-year contract

Under the new deal, Sky will have rights to 115 games per season, including 38 first-choice matches and a large majority of the second-choice games. Setanta will get the remaining 23 matches each season.

Setanta holds on to late Saturday afternoon games but Sky takes over Monday night matches. Sky will retain the prime slot of games kicking off at 4 p.m. on Sundays.

Under European Commission rules, no single broadcaster can hold more than five of the six packages.

Disney-owned U.S. giant ESPN confirmed that it had bid for some of the rights.

"We are therefore disappointed in the outcome," the company said in a statement. "But we were pleased to be at the table and we would like to congratulate Sky and Setanta."

Setanta relies heavily on live Premier League rights attracting subscribers and will have to persuade them to continue paying up to 12.99 pounds a month for its channels, despite having fewer top matches to broadcast from August 2010.

"We are absolutely sure they will adjust their business accordingly," Scudamore said. "It is still a very attractive package."

Scudamore said that the TV revenue generates up to 65 percent of some club's incomes.

"Television audiences are holding up through the recession where people appear to be staying in and watching television," he said. "It's good news for some and not so good for others. We have to be realistic, there will be pressure on people's individual pockets _ whether that is for TV subscriptions, travel, tickets.

"With unemployment rising, we are not immune. No industry is immune but I think the clubs are well placed to manage that and the broadcasters are well placed to manage that."

Television income has swelled the league's coffers and helped clubs attract some of the world's highest-profile stars to England.

Last week, the league reached a deal with BBC for the 2010-13 highlights package for 173 million pounds, slightly above the current fee.

The overseas broadcast rights, which are also up for renewal in 2010, generated a total of 625 million pounds over the same three-year period when they were renegotiated in January 2007.

More than 5 billion pounds has been poured into the topflight game by TV companies since the formation of the Premier League in 1992, including Sky's initial rights deal of 304 million pounds.

Sky has been the dominant broadcast player in the 17-year history of the Premier League, which bills itself as the most popular and lucrative domestic league in world football. Sky has about 9 million digital satellite subscribers in Britain.