The BBC is ready to tackle ITV and BSkyB for the right to broadcast Champions League football.

Setanta, the sports broadcaster, is also expected to bid, but Virgin Media is thought unlikely to participate after Neil Berkett, its chief executive, said that the cable company would invest instead in its broadband network.

Bids are due on March 12 and broadcasters predict that Uefa, European football’s governing body and the owner of the rights, will receive about £125 million a year for the next three-year package, which begins in 2009. There may be several rounds of bidding and a final deadline has not been announced.

ITV and Sky, which is 39.1 per cent owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, share the rights at present. ITV has the first two picks of games on Tuesdays, with Sky showing the rest, including high-profile live fixtures on Wednesdays.

ITV is believed to pay £42 million a year and Sky £47 million. Matches involving the top English clubs deliver a good audience, particularly on free-to-air television. Last week 6.1 million watched Liverpool defeat Internazionale of Milan, an above-average audience share for ITV1 of 24 per cent.

The next rights deal will be broken into smaller chunks in an attempt to extract more revenue. Team, the Swiss company that manages the rights, is asking for broadcasters to bid separately for the right to the first and second picks of matches on each evening. The hope is that more broadcasters will bid because each package is relatively small, although sources suggested that only the BBC, ITV and Sky are serious contenders. The BBC would have to placate the six main tournament sponsors, all of which agree deals with Uefa. ITV and Sky are obliged to carry advertisements from all six for free at the beginning and end of each break — advertising that has been valued at between £5 million and £10 million in total per year.

That could force the BBC, which is not allowed to show commercials, to bid extra, although it may be able to mitigate the loss of advertising exposure by ensuring that sponsors’ logos are prominently displayed. E.ON, the utility group that sponsors the FA Cup, receives prominent exposure during matches shown by the BBC, the rights-holder.

If the BBC failed to gain Champions League rights, it would be left without live top-flight football once existing deals to show the FA Cup and England internationals expire in the summer. As a result, the BBC’s expensively assembled commentary team would be left with little to present: Gary Lineker earns an estimated £2 million a year for his presenting work with the Corporation, while Alan Hansen, the pundit, is thought to earn £1 million annually.

Rival broadcasters believe that the pair have been told that the BBC is prepared to bid “whatever it takes” to gain Champions League rights, although the Corporation declined to comment yesterday.

The BBC airs EastEnders on Tuesdays at 7.30pm, so it may have to move the show or go head-to-head with Sky should it again win rights to Wednesday games.

Uefa is keen to share matches between free-to-air and pay TV, but a big bid from a single broadcaster is unlikely to be turned down.

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