SONY BMG and Universal Music Group, the world’s two biggest record companies, are battling for the multimillion- pound rights to release albums spawned from Simon Fuller’s American Idol television series.

Mr Fuller’s company, 19 Entertainment, told The Times yesterday that the current deal with Sony BMG had expired and it was fielding offers for a new multi-year agreement to cover releases from future American Idol stars, along with singles and DVDs.

A spokesman for 19 said that American Idol was the most commercially successful of all the Idol franchises developed by Mr Fuller, which include the original Pop Idol in Britain, generating “more than $40 million (£22 million) at retail level a year”.

The US show has yielded a handful of hits, with the season one winner Kelly Clarkson selling about five million albums and the season two runner-up Clay Aiken selling nearly three million, while the season two winner Ruben Studdard has sold more than two million albums and Fantasia Barrino, the season three winner, has notched up 1.5 million.

The successful bidder would have the right to release albums by future American Idol stars, as well as singles and DVDs. EMI and Warner Music Group, ranked third and fourth in the world, are not thought to be in the running.

The Pop Idol format has been sold in 21 countries and has generated more than $1 billion in revenues. In Britain the series has created top-selling artists including Will Young and Gareth Gates.

The fifth series of American Idol is due to begin auditions later this month and will be screened on the Fox television network, which has a deal to broadcast the first six series.

Mr Fuller, the entertainment svengali behind the Spice Girls, is understood to be heavily involved in the discussions with the record companies despite having sold 19 in March to an American who controls the rights to Elvis Presley’s work.

Mr Fuller handed over control of 19 Entertainment, which produces Pop Idol and American Idol and manages David and Victoria Beckham, to Robert Sillerman, an entrepreneur who founded the SFX group , which counts Premiership footballers among its clients.

Mr Fuller became the right-hand-man of Mr Sillerman, who sold SFX to Clear Channel Entertainment for $4.4 billion (£2.5 billion) in 2000. The pop guru is thought to be developing several new TV shows.

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