The notice period at this moment is two years and it is thought they will rejoin the Scottish Football League.
The 10 clubs were furious when Celtic and Rangers voted against SPL TV last week, a move which is thought will cost every club at least £1m a season.
The move showed in no uncertain terms that the clubs will no longer be bullied by the Old Firm.
Hearts chief executive Chris Robinson said: "The 10 clubs intimated to the chairman of the meeting that we had to give two years' notice of our resignation under the rules of the SPL. The reasons for that were simply that the clubs do require to take control of their own destiny and future and to operate under rules of fairness in terms of voting structure and distribution.
"Any new league that we set up will be founded on fairness in terms of voting structure of a similar pattern to the English Premiership and this distribution is a much fairer situation than the current SPL.
"There is a process to go through to put that in place but we certainly intimated that will be happening in the weeks ahead."
Our own managing director, Rod Petrie said "What we have given is a clarity in terms of a time scale. The SPL have got clarity for a two-year league"When asked about where the backing would coem from Petrie said "I think it is well known that the market place at the moment is a bit confused and it takes quite a degree of fate but what we have given is our position and a clear time scale for when things will happen."
Celtic chief executive Ian McLeod was shocked at the announcement, saying "It was very surprising. We gave them an opportunity to continue the dialogue but they seemed very intent on this purpose. "There has been much said about hidden agendas but I think the hidden agenda was revealed today. It's very disappointing the way events have turned out because we came here in good faith to have constructive dialogue on the way to take Scottish football forward."