Hard-pressed investors in Britain's quoted football clubs are likely to see the value of their shares soar this morning as other media companies follow BSkyB's bid for Manchester United with their own take-over offers.
Carlton, the London and Midlands television company, is believed to be interested in buying a football club, and a senior consultant in the sector said Arsenal is thought to be holding talks which could double the price of the London club's shares.
One senior adviser in the industry said: "Forget the Superleague, the real issue for the Premier League this season is the number of TV companies trying to buy clubs."
Football clubs have lost much of their stockmarket following over the past year, helped by controversies such as that involving the controlling Hall family at Newcastle and the efforts of entrepreneur, Alan Sugar, to sell his stake in Tottenham Hotspur. But the bid by BSkyB for Manchester United seems to highlight the potential value hidden within the sector and that could electrify share prices.
Less than 10 years ago Martin Edwards, the chairman and chief executive of Manchester United, could not find anyone to take the club off his hands for just £20 million. When its shares were floated in 1991, Manchester United had a price tag of £47 million and was making profits of less than £5 million a year.
By the end of last week the club's value had climbed to £406.3 million. Now BSkyB's bid - thought to be worth 225p a share and likely to be announced to the Stock Exchange this morning, will catapault that forward to £575 million, more than 20 times last year's profits.
Mr Edwards's 14 per cent holding is now worth £80 million and the thousands of Manchester United fans who ploughed £200 into shares at the time of flotation would now be sitting on a nest egg worth possibly £2,830.
City experts said last night there was now a chance of a rival bid from Granada television group - which is a partner in Manchester United TV alongside the football club and Sky. Granada is an 11 per cent shareholder in BSkyB, is a founder member of British Digital Broadcasting, to which Sky is contracted as a programme supplier, and until recently, its chairman, Gerry Robinson, was chairman of BSkyB. David Brooks, analyst with the Japanese bank Nomura said recently: "If one bids there would be a fierce competition and a substantial premium to the share price."
United News, the media group which owns a range of businesses including the Daily Express and Meridian TV, has also been tipped as a potential bidder for United, but with BSkyB opening the bidding at £575 million, the price is regarded as too rich.
The importance of television to the best performing Premier League clubs is demonstrated in Manchester United's recent figures which show that last year television contributed £12 million in revenue compared with £30 million of gate receipts and £27 million from merchandising. Five years ago television earnings were worth less than £4 million.
But sport, particularly football, is probably even more important to the big media players, which is why BSkyB is currently paying about £140 million a year to the Premier League, a figure topped up by another £18 million from the BBC.
