The Premier League will send out their invitations to bid for the next round of television rights early next year in a bid to maximise income.

A meeting of the 20 club chairmen and chief executives on Thursday ended with an agreement to send out invitation to tenders (ITT) to broadcasters within the next three or four months.

The current three-year broadcasting deal still has more than a year to run but chairmen are keen to know how much they will have to spend as soon as possible.

The 2007-10 deal is worth £1.7billion from Sky and Setanta for the domestic rights and a further £500million from overseas and new media deals.

Under an agreement with the European Commission that lasts until 2013, the Premier League cannot sell all their live packages to a single broadcaster.

For the current deal, Sky won four packages and Setanta two, and league chairmen are hopeful that the competition between the two broadcasters will see the rights increase in value despite the economic climate.

It is expected that the next meeting will see a debate on whether there should by any changes to how the cash is distributed among the 20 clubs.