NEW YORK -- The NFL extended its agreement with DirecTV for five years Wednesday, giving the satellite service exclusive rights to the league's subscription package in a deal worth $2 billion.

The NFL's average take will rise to $400 million, more than three times the $130 million it is getting from DirecTV this season under an expiring five-year contract, an industry source close to the negotiations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Included in the agreement, which runs from 2003-07, is the launching of a 24-hour NFL Channel on DirecTV as early as next year. DirecTV has shown NFL games since 1995.

In Demand, a pay-per-view cable TV company, also was interested in acquiring the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket.

"Our partnership with DirecTV will continue to complement and support our broadcast television packages that allow us to put all of our games on free, over-the-air television,'' NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said.

The league has deals with Fox, CBS, ABC and ESPN worth a total of $17.6 billion from 1998-05.

"NFL Sunday Ticket has been a significant programming differentiator for DirecTV, helping us build a loyal subscriber base,'' DirecTV chairman Eddy Hartenstein said. "It's crucial for us to have programming that sets us apart from our competition.''

His service has more than 11 million customers and is a unit of Hughes Electronics, which is a unit of General Motors Corp.

Hartenstein said "there might be some addition charges'' for subscribers to NFL Sunday Ticket, which allows subscribers to see all out-of-market games each Sunday during the regular season.

Tagliabue said the new NFL Channel "would be wholly owned by the league as a league venture.''