The Walt Disney Company may consider mounting a challenge to BSkyB by bidding for Premier League football broadcasting rights next year.

Robert Iger, chief executive of Walt Disney, said on a visit to London that ESPN, the company's sports broadcaster, was its second principal brand after the Disney name itself - and indicated that he hoped to expand it globally.

“I know they [ESPN] will look at the Premier League rights again, both individually and in partnership with others,” Mr Iger said. The next auction of Premier League broadcast rights is due to start next January.

ESPN is also interested in pursuing the rights to show Premier League games in the United States, where the rights are held by Fox, the broadcaster owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times. It believes that there is a growing audience for football in the United States.

Mr Iger said that ESPN's coverage of Euro 2008 had proved extremely popular and Disney chose to air the semi-finals and the final on its mainstream ABC network. Senior executives of the broadcaster believe that the arrival of David Beckham in the United States at the LA Galaxy had helped to lift interest in the sport in the one leading country that has largely ignored the world's game until recently.

BSkyB, the satellite broadcaster 39.1per cent owned by News Corp, paid £1.31 billion to secure the rights to show 92 live games a season in the existing three-year contract, which expires at the end of the 2009-10 season. Setanta Sports paid £392 million for the rights to show a further 46 games a season live.

The Disney chief emphasised that he had earmarked about $250 million (£142million) to $300 million for acquisitions in video games and said that the company was looking “at companies that fit well within the Disney or ESPN brands” that have “a foot[hold] into new technologies”.

Mr Iger specifically avoided directly commenting on ITV, but the criteria cited did not suggest that Disney had a strong interest in network broadcasters in Britain or elsewhere. The company has abandoned plans to introduce ABC-branded general entertainment channels in big markets globally.

Most of Disney's recent acquisitions in Europe have been modest, with the company buying the websites Soccernet, Cricinfo and Scrum.com. It also bought NASN, a broadcaster specialising in transmitting American sports across Europe, for about £50 million in 2006.

Mr Iger hinted that Disney had taken a brief look at Bebo, the social networking site, which was acquired by AOL in March. He emphasised the group's interest in social networks, saying that the model sat well with Disney.

He said that, as the economy proved tough in the West, Disney continued to focus on emerging markets. It is looking to expand considerably its lucrative consumer products business in emerging markets, particularly in Asia. It is also creating films for local markets alongside local production groups.

Roadside Romeo is a forthcoming Bollywood animated film, with the actors Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor lending their voices to animated characters. Disney intends to exploit India's undeveloped film merchandise market.

Mr Iger said that Disney was relatively resilient to the global economic crisis, saying that advertising accounted for only 20 per cent of group revenue. However, he said that the company was still feeling the pinch, adding: “The global economic crisis affects us because of the impact on the consumer ... What's going on in the housing market has an impact, as do commodity prices and unemployment. The US consumer is definitely hurting.”

The number of visitors at the group's theme parks had stayed strong. Disney made almost a quarter of its $35.5 billion revenues outside North America last fiscal year. Its shares were up 52 cents at $32.95 in afternoon trading in New York yesterday.

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