BSkyB will not sub-licence the rights to broadcast six or eight English Premier League matches live in the UK for the next three seasons.
The satellite broadcaster announced to the Stock Exchange this morning that it had concluded the tender process for any rights deal.
It said that as none of the bids received reached the reserve price per match which had previously been agreed with the European Commission, Sky would not sub-licence the rights. The process was part of a deal agreed with the Commission, which was concerned about its monopoly on live Premier League rights.
Meanwhile, BSkyB doubled its third quarter profits after hitting a key subscriber target three months early.
The group had set its sights on 315,000 customers using its Sky+ digital TV service by the end of June, but growth since the start of the year meant it now had 322,000 subscribers on its books.
The popularity of the Sky+ boxes, which allow users to pause live TV and record one satellite programme while viewing another, offset slower growth in its digital service.
BSkyB added 66,000 new customers over the past three months to build a digital subscriber base of 7.3 million after cutting back on marketing.
In Ireland, the company added 3,000 to brings its total to 318,000.
But a new campaign launched at the end of March meant the group remained on track to achieve its target of eight million digital satellite subscribers by the end of the current calendar year.
Pre-tax profits of £371m for the nine months to March 31 were a significant improvement on the £160m recorded at the same stage of 2003. Higher prices introduced at the start of January helped BSkyB increase revenues by 16% in the nine-month period to £2.7 billion.
BSkyB added that its advertising revenues continued to outperform the market with a 9% increase on a year earlier to £223m.
'Almost a quarter of all households now subscribe to Sky Digital,' commented Mark Deering, Director Sky Ireland. 'With the successful launch of Sky News Ireland this week, Sky continues to enhance its offering in the marketplace,' he added.
