From The Guardian:
‘THE image of Manchester United steamrolling its way over the Premiership's smaller clubs to tie up a multi-million pound television rights bonanza is way off the mark, according to Old Trafford chairman Martin Edwards.
Financial experts who forecast that the richest club in the country could be contemplating the possibility of taking over the marketing of the domestic television rights to its games have got it wrong - but it may be a different story when it comes to cashing in on United's immense popularity abroad.
Edwards says the chances of United going it alone and negotiating their own domestic deal when the current agreement ends in 2004 are remote.
The man who led United into the Premier League, as one of its main instigators more than a decade ago, says loyalty to other member clubs would rule out such a move.
"I think that is a long way off. I don't see that the centralised rights will just revert back to clubs. If you did that it would make the top clubs so wealthy you really would have leagues within leagues," he says.
United and the other 19 Premiership sides share in a £400m cash pool from Sky and the BBC.
They also receive funding from televised European, FA Cup and Worthington Cup games and Edwards says there are no plans to change the present format.
He said: "It would completely distort the competitive element of the league and I feel that if you are a member of a league then you have to have some responsibility to the whole as well.
"I think the centralised television deal we have at the moment is very fair. Everybody gets a share and if you are really successful then you get more. It is based on league positions and appearances and it is a 50-50 split. If you are doing well you get extra."
"Where I do see the possibility of change is maybe on the overseas rights. At present everybody splits the overseas rights equally, but I think there is an argument for those rights to be owned by the clubs themselves because they can market their own club abroad."
Speculation United would cash in on pay-per-view games using their own channel MUTV has so far failed to materialise as the station is currently not allowed to screen live first team games.’