Many fear Rupert Murdoch's $1.03B takeover of
Manchester United may "signal the beginning of the end for
the Premier League," according to Colin Gibson of the London
TELEGRAPH. Gibson wrote that "the secret success story of
the Premier League ... has been the collective-bargaining
strategy," but it now "seems certain that individual clubs
will insist on negotiating" their own TV deals in the
future. Gibson: "With the biggest fan base in Britain, and
55,000 capacity crowds each week, [Manchester United] are
more likely than any other club to be able to make pay-per-
view work." Premier League games are already being shown on
PPV in the U.S. through Fox Sports Net, and IMG's Andrew
Croker said, "Fox is pushing very hard with soccer in
America." Gibson added that if the TV contracts are a
"free-for-all" when the current deal expires in 2001, "no
one in the Premiership will be able to rival United's
dominance" and United -- via Fox/BskyB -- will have
"agreements in place to attack the American, Far East,
Australian and South American markets -- which every Premier
club has identified as key" (London TELEGRAPH, 9/13).
