Murdoch may need to up his bid for Sky after broadcaster wins Premier League football rights bidding

SKY shares got a lift today as it was seen to be a winner from the latest round of bidding for Premier League football rights.

But that could end up costing Rupert Murdoch money. His bid for the 62% of Sky he doesn’t already own faces regulatory opposition. Investors could also cry foul.

George Salmon at Hargreaves Lansdown said: “Sky looks much healthier than when Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox first bid for the business.

“In early trading the shares touched £10.95, 20p ahead of the price Fox has agreed to pay. This tells us Murdoch might need to come back with an improved offer.”

Sky has secured four packages, giving it the rights to 128 matches, with the cost per game falling from £11.1 million to £9.3 million. BT won just one deal for early kick-off games - 32 matches.

That leaves two packages up for grabs with “multiple bidders” interested. That is likely to be some combination of BT, Amazon, Twitter or Netflix.

Henry Croft at Accendo Markets said: “The fact that two packages remain on offer leaves a fresh opportunity for new media providers such as Amazon, Facebook and Twitter to enter the fray. By 2022, could we be watching the latest Manchester or north London derby exclusively on smartphones or tablets?”

BT shares were also up by 3p to 229p.