Online giant Amazon have reportedly held 'exploratory' talks ahead of the next auction for UK TV rights to the Premier League.

Broadcast rights covering the three seasons from 2019 to 2022 will go up for auction next month, with the league making some 200 of its 380 games a season available, a rise of 42 on the current figure.

The rights have been split up into several packages - including new Saturday evening games and entire rounds of midweek fixtures - with broadcasters able to bid for as many as they wish.

Sky Sports and BT Sport are widely expected to retain the lion's share of the rights but there has been growing speculation over the last year that digital players such as Amazon, Facebook, Netflix and Google could enter the bidding for a modest proportion of the rights.

Amazon have already nabbed the rights to ATP tennis from Sky for its Amazon Prime service and, according to The Telegraph, the company has held numerous meetings with "external companies" about the practicalities of adding top-level football to its offering.

Amazon is the world's largest online firm and has annual revenues of £100 billion.