Setanta Sports, the Irish pay broadcaster already behind Scottish Premier League coverage, pulled off an unexpected extra-time victory today, bagging two out of six packages of rights to show live FA Premier League matches.

BSkyB, the satellite broadcaster that currently has exclusive rights, won one further package after taking three in a first round of bidding last week that was so close a second was deemed necessary.

All six packages combined to generate £1.7 billion, with Sky paying £1.3 billion and Setanta £392 million, the League said.

The result means that from 2007 to 2010, Sky will show 92 of the League's live matches and Setanta 46 live games. Setanta, which is partly owned by private equity firm Benchmark Capital, is carried on Sky’s pay-TV platform.

Setanta won packages that include matches at 8pm on Mondays and at 5.15pm on Saturday, the Premier League said.

Sky's failure to secure five of the six parcels of games - the most it was allowed after rule changes to bidding made this year - comes as a blow to Britain's largest pay-TV operator.

It built its success through its controlling grip on top-flight football since 1992, but failed to secure the bulk of the Premier League live football games at the first attempt last week after it faced stiffer than expected competition.

The group owns the current packages of live matches after agreeing a £1 billion deal with the Premier League in 2003. But it won only half the games on offer in the first round of bids last week and was given until yesterday to submit a revised offer to secure the lion’s share of matches.

Crucially, however, Sky today did win the flagship Sunday 4pm package, which gives the owner the pick of the weekend’s fixtures 23 times a season.

Sky, which is 37.95 owned by News Corporation, parent company of Times Online, had already won the rights to show games on Sundays at 1.30pm, on Saturdays at 12.45pm, and a sought-after mixed package of mid-week and Bank Holiday games.

Following pressure from the European Commision's competition watchdog, the League divided the rights into six equal packages of 23 games. Games involving top clubs are roughly equally distributed, but the competition for some of the six packages is fiercer because they carry more first-choice rights than others.

The Commission, which had threatened legal action over the issue, wanted at least two broadcasters to have a "viable and meaningful" share.

The packages that Setantar won could have interested a free-to-air broadcaster, such as Channel 4, but they did not have the fire power to match the determined pay-television operators.

Earlier this week, Sky said it would offer live matches over 3G mobile phones for the first time under a deal with Vodafone, the mobile operator.

Shares in BSkyB traded marginally lower this morning, down 1p at 517p. To track the stock click here.

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