MANCHESTER UNITED, in a joint venture with BSkyB and Granada Media Group, is to become the first football club in the world with its own daily television channel. This subscription service will begin broadcasting next month. The sardonic response from followers of other teams is anticipated.
With allegations of fawning coverage, they will claim that United already have television stations at their disposal. Beyond the bandying of insults, however, there are common interests that unite clubs. Manchester United Television (MUTV) is an experiment the outcome of which will be studied by Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle United and all those who might be able to sustain channels of their own.
If MUTV cannot succeed, then no other club need waste its time on this type of project. ``Few of us would sign up for a Real Madrid channel or an Ajax channel,'' Darren Fletcher, the MUTV news editor, said. ``But people in other countries will take a great interest in United.''
Heavy investment in equipment, recruitment of a staff of 60 and the building of a studio at Old Trafford is clearly not an exercise in altruism and the channel, broadcasting from 6.0pm until midnight each day, could be the precursor of a highly lucrative operation.
When the existing contract between the Premier League and BSkyB runs out in 2001, clubs may seek to sell the rights to their own games individually. One can readily envisage all of United's fixtures being shown on MUTV. The advent of digital television, which creates hundreds of channels, makes such developments possible.
Although game shows, lifestyle coverage and the archive footage that has been refered to as `the baggy shorts department' all have some appeal, MUTV can only prosper if it takes viewers into the midst of life at the club. Since they do not own the rights to coverage of the games themselves at the moment, MUTV must depend heavily on its ability to bring supporters fresh news.
Cooperation from the staff of the club is assured since Alex Ferguson, the United manager, is so enthusiastic a proponent of MUTV that he has even come up with programme ideas.
The relationship between the channel and the club is bound to incite scepticism. MUTV, for example, might well be given the extended interview with David Beckham that others crave, but will they be granted it only if they dodge controversy?
