The recent report by Sports Business Daily that the Premier League has asked US broadcasters to bid on separate 3-year and 6-year options to try to acquire the rights to the Premier League is bad news for soccer fans.

The Premier League has always sold its US rights packages in 3-year deals, but has added the opportunity  for broadcasters — for the first-time ever — to enter 6-year bids.

The current Premier League rights deal with NBC Sports expires at the end of the 2015/16 season, so interested media companies — NBC, ESPN, FOX, beIN SPORTS and others — are bidding on the 2016/17 to 2019/20 rights, and have the option to try to secure the 2016/17 to 2022/23 rights if the Premier League decides to accept a deal that “blows them out of the water.”

So why is the 6-year option bad news for soccer fans, and why is the Premier League even considering that option?

The Premier League knows the market conditions in the United States. They know that the Premier League is the most popular English-language soccer league in the United States. And, more importantly, they know that FOX Sports, ESPN and NBC desperately want the rights.

ESPN desperately wants it because, after the Euro 2016, the Bristol, CT-based company is practically out of the soccer rights business other than select MLS, USMNT and World Cup qualifiers.

FOX Sports wants it because they know it would be the crown jewel of their club soccer rights. They’re still rueing the day when they lost the Premier League TV rights to NBC, which resulted in FOX Sports shutting down FOX Soccer and changing their strategies. Plus, FOX Sports is on an aggressive strategy to gobble up as many rights as possible to try to bolster the TV viewing audiences for the laggard FOX Sports 2 and to try to make FOX Sports 1 a force in a competitive space.

On top of that, sports rights are at a premium because (1) fewer people are watching television, but sports remains one of the few major attractions that people tune in to watch live, and (2) there aren’t a lot of rights available for sports properties as leagues have secured long-term deals with broadcasters, so there’s a lot more competition. The supply is little. The demand is great.

So the juggernauts that are ESPN and FOX Sports want the Premier League, but for differing reasons.

At the same time, NBC Sports desperately wants to hold on to the Premier League. Without the league, NBC Sports Group would have no rights to major soccer competitions. Also, the ratings and viewing numbers for NBCSN would take a massive hit across the network after the Premier League really put NBCSN, the network, on the map.

With FOX, ESPN and NBC all desperately wanting to win the rights — and with outsiders such as beIN SPORTS and Discovery Communications rumored to be interested — it creates market conditions that are ripe for the Premier League to take advantage of the situation.

SEE MORE — Premier League TV rights battle in US has begun.

It’s one thing for the Premier League to expect generous bids from FOX/ESPN/NBC for a 3-year deal, but it’s another thing entirely to ask broadcasters to enter 6-year bids.

A 6-year bid changes everything.

First, it weeds out the smaller players who may not have the investment or commitment to take the long-term risk of a 6-year deal opposed to a shorter 3-year option. While beIN SPORTS certainly has access to the wealth of Qatar, would it have the vision and commitment to be the home to the Premier League when it already owns so many rights and doesn’t have the bandwidth to show all of them, even now?

Similarly, Discovery Communications has been touted as a possible dark horse in the bidding for the Premier League TV rights. When contacted by World Soccer Talk to address whether they were interested in bidding on the rights, they said no comment. But even with the possible interest from Discovery Communications — who recently acquired EuroSport — I’m not convinced they would have the commitment or desire to enter into a 6-year deal.

While a 6-year deal weeds out the smaller players, it gives preference to the media behemoths who have the money and power to compete.

The second reason a 6-year bid changes everything is because it’s more likely to attract desperate bids. When FOX Sports, NBC and ESPN bid on the rights to the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup tournaments, FOX won the English-language rights with a bid of $425 million. FOX reportedly bid $100 million more than the next closest bidder, which was ESPN.

With FOX, ESPN and NBC desperate to win the rights, the 6-year bidding option increases the chances that one media company will put in a crazy bid to ensure that they’ve got the next six years locked down.

Is that a good thing or bad thing? It’s certainly a win for the Premier League and its clubs, who would be able to cash in on an enormous amount of revenue from TV. But what does it offer soccer fans, if anything, other than knowing that the games will be on the same channel for the next six years.

SEE MORE: Where to find the Premier League on US TV, Internet and radio.

Reason number three why this changes everything is a big one. The timing of the Premier League entertaining the possibility that they would entertain a 6-year offer (if the deal blew them out of the water) is telling. It comes at a time where many in the TV industry are worried about the growing trend of their customers leaving and becoming cord cutters, as they sign up for streaming services. For example, in just over one year, ESPN lost 3.2 million subscribers.

While NBC, ESPN and FOX are fighting over TV rights to the Premier League and the rights fee is set to hit a record-high in the US (and across the planet), you have to wonder whether the Premier League is thinking that this may be the best and possibly last time that they can secure a $1 billion+ deal in the US over six years.

In three years from now, will TV networks be able to spend as lavishly as they are now on TV rights or will they be agonizing over major cutbacks instead?

Last but not least, the final reason a 6-year deal changes everything is because, after it’s signed, it significantly reduces the need for the broadcaster to be competitive. Take, for example, NBC Sports who have held the rights to the Premier League for the 2013/14 to 2015/16 seasons. With the pressure of knowing that the TV rights deal for 2016/17 to 2019/20 has been hanging over its heads while it’s still currently broadcasting the Premier League, NBC Sports has been trying harder than ever to make a positive impression with the league and clubs in order to help it try to win the next rights deal. NBC Sports has done so many groundbreaking things in the first two years of its three-year deal with the Premier League.

But what would happen if, say, FOX Sports locked down the Premier League rights in the US from 2016/17 to 2022/23? This would instantly remove the pressure of FOX Sports having to perform at its highest level, and would instead focus the attention on the most important thing in its purview — how to generate enough money from advertising and sponsorships in order to help pay off the obscene amount of money that FOX Sports would have bid for the rights in the first place.

SEE MORE: View the Premier League TV schedule for the US.

Having a 3-year deal keeps broadcasters on their toes, ensures that they make the best effort in a short amount of time and focuses on quality coverage instead of quantity.

The deadline for US broadcasters to submit their bids for the rights to the Premier League is Thursday, August 6.