Up to 80 Scottish Premiership fixtures will be broadcast live on television next season - as discussions over a new league sponsor continue.

SPFL chief Neil Doncaster confirmed Sky Sports will broadcast 60 matches next term - up from 48 this season - with a further 20 games out to tender.

Sky Sports will continue as the major TV partner to the Scottish Premiership but the extra matches have been put out to tender for bids from rival broadcasters.

The current television partners are eligible to compete for the further matches - but Doncaster expects the deal to go to another broadcaster.

 "Sky could have bid for the extra 20 games but the reality is, the market has changed," said the SPFL chief executive.

"They've now bought over 1,000 EFL games and they've hugely increased the amount of Premier League games they've taken.

"So, Sky is awash with football content in the UK.

"I would expect if they are bought that they will be bought with by another broadcaster."

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He added: "We'd love Apple and Google to be bidding aggressively for our rights but we're not quite in that space.

"Amazon are out of the running for the Premier League, they didn't succeed in the recent Premier League auction.

"In terms of other potential bidders you have DAZN who, by volume, are one of the biggest sports broadcasters in Europe.

"You obviously have Premier Sports who have the current Scottish Cup rights and the Premier Sports Cup.

"You have the likes of TNT who may be short of football content in Scotland who may have an interest.

"These will be attractive games, there will be a number of Rangers and Celtic games, there will be an Edinburgh derby, potentially now a Dundee derby, so I would hope we are in a position to have more games on TV next season."

And the SPFL CEO also revealed talks over a new league sponsor are ongoing as cinch withdraw from their deal in the summer having activated a three-year exit clause.

The used car company agreed a five-year term in 2021 but will pull out through a break clause in the contract leaving the league searching for new backers ahead of the 2024/25 season. 

Doncaster remained coy over a new deal when appearing on BBC Sportsound but insisted he was confident a new firm will take up league sponsorship over the summer.

"Optimistic we'll have a sponsor in place for next season," he said.

"It's never done until it's done. It's been a difficult market, but I would say Scottish football is in a very good place."

On whether the new deal would prove financially beneficial for clubs over the cinch sponsor, he added: "I would certainly hope so".