page_title: 1998–99 Manchester United F.C. season
section_title: Attempted takeover by BSkyB
hierarchical_section_title: 1998–99 Manchester United F.C. season / Attempted takeover by BSkyB
caption_attribution_description: Rupert Murdoch - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2007.
context_page_description: The 1998–99 season was the most successful season in the history of Manchester United Football Club. After finishing the previous season without winning any titles, United won the treble of trophies, the first side in English football to achieve such a feat. During the campaign United lost only five times, including a one-off Charity Shield fixture, in the League Cup against eventual winners Tottenham Hotspur and their only home defeat, a league match against Middlesbrough in December 1998 and two away defeats to Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday in September and November respectively. A run of 33 games unbeaten in all competitions began on 26 December at home to Nottingham Forest.
  Veteran players Brian McClair and Gary Pallister, along with a host of younger and less experienced players such as goalkeeper Kevin Pilkington and striker Graeme Tomlinson, had left the club before the season began. The big news of the pre-season was the arrival of Dutch defender Jaap Stam for a club record fee of £10.75 million. Other additions included striker Dwight Yorke and Swedish winger Jesper Blomqvist.
context_section_description: In September 1998 Manchester United were the target of a proposed takeover by British Sky Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Negotiations between both sides had begun during the summer, but had stalled after disagreements over the asking price. The satellite group's original bid of £575 million – initially thought to be their final offer – was deemed too low by two members of United's board (chairman Martin Edwards and Professor Sir Roland Smith), who pressed for a higher figure. Two days of talks followed and in an attempt to close the deal, BSkyB made a final bid of £623.4 million.
  A year earlier, Murdoch's Fox Entertainment Group purchased the Los Angeles Dodgers for $311m. Fox also held exclusive rights to Major League Baseball which meant from a strategic point of view, Murdoch's acquisition looked more appealing. He was now able to control both programming content on his network and distribution rights to the Dodgers. For the very same reason BSkyB replicated Fox's formula and went ahead with a takeover of a Premier League club. Manchester United thus was the unanimous choice of Murdoch and board members. The club was the most valuable in English football, making £30.1 million from gate receipts and programmes in 1997 alone. At the same time, more than 200 supporters' groups were established worldwide and the club's fanbase exceeded 100 million, despite only a million having been to Old Trafford to watch the first team play. As a means of capitalising on this growing market, MUTV, a television station operated by the club was launched in August 1998. In co-operation with Granada Media Group and BSkyB it was the world's first channel dedicated to a football club, funded entirely through subscriptions. On the pitch United's success was largely down to the nurturing talents of manager Ferguson, who assembled a team capable of dominating in the long haul.
caption: After a meeting with Silvio Berlusconi in spring 1998, Rupert Murdoch (pictured) informed BSkyB of the need to buy a football club if the company wanted to hold on to their Premier League rights.[98]
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