LONDON, Feb 7: The English Premier League announced on Friday it raised 1.782 billion pounds ($2.58 billion; euro2 billion) in the sale of domestic broadcast rights for the 2010-13 seasons, with satellite broadcaster BSkyB expanding its control over coverage of the world’s most popular football league.

The league sold the rights in six packages covering a total of 138 games, with Sky securing the maximum five packages allowed under European rules for 1.623 billion pounds. Irish-based Setanta bought the remaining package.

The new deal surpasses the 1.76 billion pounds in domestic rights fees for the current three-year period by about 5 percent, another sign that English football continues to thrive despite the recession.—AP