Premier coverage

Showtime, the television provider of the English Premier League in the Middle East, has promised it will not suffer from the disease that dogs so many footballers. It will not fall victim to Second Season Syndrome.

The Dubai-based entertainment network has enjoyed a fruitful year since launching its exclusive coverage of the English Premier League last August, but anchorman Rob McCaffrey insists the company won't be "taking it easy".

"I've been back in England for the past two months and when I got back [last week] I was so happy to see the company hadn't been resting on its laurels.

"We have new technology in place, the staff behind the scenes have been coming up with new ideas and innovations... it's very exciting."

Likewise, Azhar Malik, Vice-President of marketing for Showtime, says the company is doing all it can to satisfy a "significant increase" in subscribers and, having conducted more than 20,000 interviews with current and prospective customers, knows what it needs to do to continue improving.

"The first season of the Premier League, compared from 2006 to 2007, was 30 per cent growth year-on-year. And we expect even more this year," said Malik.

"The best thing that the Premier League brings is the passion and excitement of the fans inside the stadium itself. So, this year, we are going to bring more action live from the field. Our presenters will be at the games."

Another feature to coincide with the new season is the introduction of a programme similar to the British staple Match of the Day. Goals on Monday will air at the start of each week and feature McCaffrey, sidekick Derek Whyte and a special guest discussing the weekend's football and having a look at the highlights from each of the 10 games.

Showtime is the only network able to screen all 380 games from the forthcoming season and with the installation of their Showbox, viewers are able to record, pause and rewind live TV through their etisalat phone line. However, with technical problems rendering alternative network service provider du incapable of offering such benefits, many potential subscribers are being lost, including those living in the vastly populated Jumeirah Beach Residence. So, are du and Showtime actively seeking an answer to this problem?

"We are working with du to try and rectify that," said Malik. "Hopefully in the next few months we'll be able to produce something that will allow that to work.

"It's not really our fault in a sense – it's a technical incapability in the buildings.

"But du are keen to make it work also, so our target is to get both the Showbox and Video-on-Demand services in place by the end of this year. Like all these things though, there are technical aspects that cannot be adapted so easily."

The next step for a company profiting from Premier League football is surely to monopolise the market and attain the rights to the Champions League, FA Cup and international matches?

"Clearly whenever decent sports rights come up now, we are competing," said Malik, who also confirmed Showtime now own the rights to broadcast both the Portuguese and Russian leagues. "But it is very competitive. Everybody knows it is this that drives business.

"It would certainly be nice, but that is something for down the line. Contracts tend to run for three years and ART have the Champions League until 2009 and then Al Jazeera have won the rights from then on."



SHOW ME THE MONEY

Dh100m: Azhar Malik, Vice-President of marketing for Showtime, confirmed such a figure was "close to the truth" in terms of what Showtime paid for the exclusive rights to the Premier League.

Dh87: The monthly price of the new Showtime Sports Package, which includes all 380 Premier League games as well as Portuguese Liga, WWE, UFC, tennis, cricket, golf and rugby.