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Manchester United vice-chairman Ed Woodward reveals Susanna Dinnage expectations

Ed Woodward has revealed what he expects of new Premier League chief executive Susanna Dinnage.

Former global president of Discovery’s Animal Planet channel, Dinnage, will succeed Richard Scudamore in the New Year.

Manchester United executive vice-chairman Woodward welcomed her appointment and made it clear where he expects her focus to lie.

Woodward, who announced year-on-year drops in United’s revenue this week, believes Dinnage will set about finding new audiences for English football’s biggest clubs when she takes up her role.

Speaking to investors on the New York Stock Exchange, he said: “Susanna is starting in 2019 and comes with a strong CV from a media background perspective and I think more candidly I’d say she’s going to continue the work that’s already been done by the Premier League to look at possible other ways to monetise the rights.

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“We’ve spent a lot of time recently looking at Singapore and Canada, for example, to see whether they are markets to sell through an OTT (over the top) type platform.

“So I expect her to pick the baton up and run with it as Richard has done to this date. So we’re looking forward to working with her.”

United’s commercial revenue for the first quarter of the financial year was £75.9m – a drop of 5.7 percent on the previous year.

Match day revenue was £16.3m – down 27.2 percent, which was largely put down to match scheduling issues year-on-year, with United playing two fewer home games compared to the previous season.

Broadcasting revenue was up by 4.9 percent to £42.8m, but operating profit was down by 22.3 percent to £13.9m.

United are still on course to post record revenues of £615-630m for the year.

The latest figures underline the ongoing importance of matchday revenues and fans in the stadium – but Woodward’s comments are evidence of English football’s continuous drive to find more markets to sell television rights to.

As well as exploring territories further afield, Woodward believes Europe will take up much of Dinnage’s time in her first weeks and months in the job.

He added: “I think maybe there needs to be quite a lot of time focused on engaging with Europe about some of the conversations that are happening there. I think it’s going to take quite a lot of her time on planes actually back and forth.”

Woodward insists United remain in position to compete for the best players in the world, despite their latest figures.

“Our financial strength enables us to continue to attract and retain top players and to invest in our academy, as we look to drive the success on the pitch that the club and our fans expect,” he said.

“On the pitch, we remain well positioned in the Champions League, and although we’ve had a mixed start to our domestic campaign, the squad and manager are fully united in their determination to regain our momentum in the Premier League.”