The Scottish Premier League have secured a £125million broadcasting deal with Setanta Sports - the richest contract in the SPL's history.

SPL chairman Lex Gold has hailed the new four-year contract as good news for Scottish football.Gold and his colleagues are delighted to have negotiated the landmark windfall for the top-flight, which is more than double the existing £54.5million contract with the Irish broadcaster.

The new deal will extend the current partnership from the start of the 2010-11 season through to the end of the 2013-14 campaign - with 60 live games to be shown each season throughout the UK and Ireland.

Gold - criticised last season over his handling of Rangers' exhaustive fixture schedule in the build-up to their UEFA Cup final - insists the new deal has been warmly greeted by chairman of the 12 SPL clubs.

He said: "It really is good news, not just for the Scottish Premier League but for the game as a whole.

"To put this context, we are looking at £125million over four years and we have our current deal which is less than half that.

"When we set up we spoke about developing the game in Scotland and I would claim we have done that.

"When you look at our co-efficient in Europe, when we started it was 26th and we are currently sitting at 10th.

"Setanta have been superb partners. Last year we had an extremely hard time in terms of fixtures and they were extremely helpful in dealing with the problems we had in terms of weather delays and postponements we had to have for quite tragic circumstances.

"They are a very good partner and we work well together."

Gold admits the money will continue to be distributed according to each club's final league position.

He added: "This is a clear statement from Setanta that they see Scottish football as very important to their company going forward.

"We have got rules for dispensing with the money and that process won't change.

"All monies brought into the SPL are distributed on the basis of 48% equal share and then the rest is split according to first and 12th in the league.

"What you can take as a simple view here is that each club will double the money they are getting from broadcasting."