Manchester United and its US marketing partner the New York Yankees have signed a deal with US cable television, the first of its kind for a European football club.
In a deal that links two of the world's most lucrative sports franchises in one TV setting, the new cable network, YES, has signed on to show about 20 of United's English Premier League matches a year.
Financial details were not revealed, but under the deal between Yankee Entertainment & Sports Network (YES) and the soccer club's own television station, MUTV, American viewers will see four hours of MUTV programming a week.
Fans will be able to see the climax to United's quest for the Premier League title starting April 22nd with a taped broadcast of the April 20th match against Chelsea.
The 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week sports and entertainment network YES, which was created by the New York Yankees baseball club, which has won 26 World Series championships. YES which offers round the clock coverage of baseball holds the broadcast rights to 130 Yankees games and 75 New Jersey Nets basketball games.
The YES-MUTV deal comes a year after the Yankees' owners, YankeeNets and Manchester United, the world's richest football club, signed a marketing agreement to use each other's distribution networks to sell merchandise.
Manchester United has more than 200 official supporters' clubs in 24 countries and an estimated following of 50 million fans around the world. MUTV is jointly owned by the club and two TV companies, British Sky Broadcasting and Granada.