``It shouldn't be seen as a stand alone event, but as part of the broad strategy, which is to become the dominant global force in the media and entertainment spheres,' said Nomura Australia analyst Eric Betts.

``He's got a pretty big war chest and it fits in well with his strategy -- he wants the top brand names in sport because it does drive subscriptions in those services,'' Betts said.

British satellite television operator BSkyB Plc, which built its subscriber base through its exclusive broadcast rights for the Premier Football League, confirmed onSunday it was in talks with Manchester United Plc on a possible takeover.

Murdoch owns about 30.5 per cent of News Corp's voting shares and News Corp owns 40 per cent of BSkyB, which is reportedly bidding 575 million pounds stg (US$958.1 million) for the ``Red Devils'' team.

Analysts said a Manchester United takeover fitted with Murdoch's recent acquisition of US Sports teams to guarantee broadcast rights for the teams' matches.

In March, News Corp's Fox television network bought the Los Angeles' Dodgers baseball team for a reported US$320 million and in April bought a stake in a new Los Angeles Sports arena that gave it the option to buy stakes in the Los Angeles' Lakers basketball team and the LA Kings ice hockey teams.

Fox already owns 20 per cent of the New York Knicks basketball team. In Australia, News Corp owns the champion Brisbane Broncos Rugby League team and has stakes in other rugby league teams, the Adelaide Rams, the Melbourne Storm, the North Queensland Crushers and the CanberraRaiders.

``It's entirely consistent with what News Corp is doing in Britain itself, in the United States and in Australia,'' said a senior Melbourne media analyst. ``Murdoch wants News to be a television company that is as vertically integrated as possible,'' the analyst said.

Analysts said Murdoch could recover the high cost of Manchester United by broadcasting matches around the world and linking it to News' other media like newspapers and magazines.

``The world is soccer mad at the moment after the World Cup and you could sell Manchester United globally,'' said Nomura's Betts. ``With that you can spread the cost over all those different delivery platforms,'' he said.

Up until the last two years, Murdoch has been largely content to negotiate with a sport's governing body to buy the rights to broadcast the Sports.

In January Fox paid US$4.4 billion to broadcast National Football Conference games for eight years and Fox also has the local broadcast rights for 22 of the 30 Major League baseball clubsin the United States.

BSkyB paid 647 million stg two years ago to renew its broadcast rights for English Football's Premier League and in 1995 News paid US$550 million to broadcast Rugby Union games played by the dominant Southern Hemisphere sides until 2005.

But analysts said the escalating prices paid for these rights has forced Murdoch to try and buy the teams granting the rights to buy leverage in any negotiation.

``This is all about Murdoch buying leverage in these negotiations,'' said one analyst of the Manchester United deal.

``This would give him a seat at the table inside the Premier League and it would give him a seat at the table of any decision to go ahead with a European Super League,'' the analyst said.

Analysts said however Murdoch would be unlikely to drag Manchester United out of the Premier League into a European Super League. ``The Premier League is crucial to the profitability of BSkyB and any move to disenfranchise Man United from the Premier League would alienate the otherowners in the Premier League and jeopardise those rights,'' said one analyst.