The BBC and its terrestrial neighbour ITV have offered £55m ($80m/B88m) for the rights to the competition, a far cry from the £170m ($249m/B271m) demanded by Kirch but a lot higher than what they have paid for previous tournaments.
It is unlikely this sum will be raised despite the weekend's euphoria after England automatically qualified for the World Cup. The fact that the games next summer will not be played in prime time will probably prevent the terrestrial stations paying a vast amount to broadcast them.
A BBC spokeswoman said: "We had a face-to-face meeting with Kirch and we had a constructive discussion about the World Cup rights."
Meanwhile, a Kirch spokesman added: "Following the qualification of the English team there is great interest from broadcasters. We have had positive discussions with the broadcasters and are confident that we will be able to reach agreement very soon."
British law dictates that the BBC, ITV and Channel Four, as universally available, free-to-air channels, must have live access to all 64 finals matches, provided they make a reasonable offer.
Kirch was hoping to challenge the ruling in the European court of justice, but now appears to have admitted defeat in its original plan to have the less prestigious matches shown on pay-per-view.
UK terrestrial broadcaster, the BBC, says it is confident the long-awaited deal to show the 2002 World Cup soccer finals on free-to-air TV is close to completion after a year-long row with German media giants Kirch.
