Showtime Arabia unveils multimillion-dollar football studios

by Iain Akerman, Brand Republic 06-Aug-07, 10:30

DUBAI - Showtime Arabia has unveiled its new multi-million dollar football studios in preparation for the start of the new Premier League season on Saturday.

The pay-TV network, which won the exclusive rights to broadcast the English Premier League in the Middle East and North Africa last year, has converted a warehouse next to its headquarters in Dubai Media City into state-of-the-art studios that will broadcast all 380 games in both Arabic and English.

The "significant investment" means the Arabic- and English-language studios will be able to accommodate more than 500 hours of live studio coverage and 760 hours of live match broadcasting during the coming season.

Former Sky Sports presenter Rob McCaffrey will head the English studio line-up, while the Arabic studio will be fronted by Ali Alawieh, who brought the 2006 World Cup coverage to viewers across the Middle East.

The Arabic studio will also be joined by the winner of Showtime's reality sports programme 'Hezz al Malab', which has seen football fans from across the region competing to become a commentator for Show Sports 1, the network's first Arabic sports channel. The winner will be announced on the first day of the season and will provide commentary for one of the opening games.

Showtime, which is a joint venture between Kuwaiti holding company Kipco and CBS, is believed to have paid in the region of $120m (£60m) to become the official broadcaster of the Premier League for the next three seasons. Such an outlay means the network will have to increase subscriber numbers significantly if it is to stand any chance of making a profit.

However, Marc-Antoine d'Halluin, president and CEO of Showtime, is refusing to be drawn on questions of subscriber numbers and monetary outlay, admitting only that new subscribers would number in the tens of thousands.

Talking to Brand Republic, d'Halluin said: "A 50% increase in subscribers would certainly be a good indication of where we want to be within the next 12 months.

"The Premier League is a driver and it has proven to be so in other regions, so I'm expecting something similar here, although for different and for more local reasons."