Yahoo! has announced that it has secured the exclusive UK online highlights rights for the English Premier League for the next three seasons (2010-13). The rights are currently held by Virgin Media.

The deal means that from August this year, British football fans can watch five minute highlight packages from every Barclays Premier League match on Yahoo.co.uk, The highlights will be available from midnight on Sunday after weekend matches and at midnight the same day for midweek fixtures.

Yahoo! will also own the rights in the UK to syndicate all or part of the Premier League highlights content to third parties, which the company says will enable it to put together innovative video advertising packages for major brands.  

In the US, Yahoo has similar deals to show major sporting highlights from the NBA basketball, PGA golf, NHL ice hockey and MLB baseball.