LONDON. Apr 3: The battle over one of the world's hottest broadcast deals kicked off today as the chairmen of England's top 20 soccer clubs met to hammer out the terms of the sale of Premier League screening rights, reports Reuters.

In a competition expected to bring a windfall of up to 2.0 billion pounds (3.2 billion dollars) for the Premier League clubs, the chairmen were putting the finishing touches to a tender document for the rights which are expected to be awarded by June.

The deal, starting in the 2001-2002 season, is widely expected to split the rights between a large 60-game live package and several smaller ones covering some live games, highlights, pay-per-view and the Internet.

Football clubs are keen to have rights to delayed coverage to screen on their own TV channels, and the length of contracts is expected to be shaved back to around three years.

BSkyB paid 670 million pounds in 1996 for the last four-year contact for exclusive live rights while the BBC paid 73 million pounds for the highlights.