The New Showtime Arabia revealed today 1 April
April 1st, 2007 Zeid Nasser (Admin)
Apart from the big news that Showtime Arabia has won the rights to the English Premier League, there have been sweeping changes in the look of the station and its channels as of today, 1 April.
The new channels have been branded Showcinema, Showmovies, Showkids, Showsports and Showseries…. etc.
Three new Showsports channels replace the previous Sportsnet channels, and should provide Showtime with a leap in subscribers just before the next football season starts in August.
Showtime Arabia promoted it’s new look, through teaser promos for the past couple of weeks, as the network continues to gain marketshare in spite of the free-to-air challenge of MBC Group channels which follow a similar formula in Western entertainment programming.
ART, losers of the Premier League rights, are yet to announce any major shift in strategy to cope with the potential fall-out next season.
Without a doubt, there will be plenty of football-associated sponsors, like Snickers and Pepsi who will move to Showtime.
Via [ mediaME ]
Entry Filed under: Brands, Regional, TV & Film
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1. Robert | October 19th, 2007 at 2:11 am
Zeid - You must be joking.
Have a look at this email I just sent to Showtime Arabia.
Gents:
You would think that Showtime’s highest priority would be to increase the viewing pleasure of its subscribers.
That you would try to avoid showing anything that would distract, irritate or otherwise annoy your viewers. Likewise, you would certainly try to avoid showing anything that could be considered glaring, abrasive or downright jarring, right ?
Yet - that is exactly what you are doing with your self-promoting station-breaks shown every few minutes. You know the ones - those shouting images of red, blue or green bouncing balls against a harsh white background with the Showtime promotional messages blinking 20 times a second.
Exactly what I want to see between scenes of my favorite programs !
Now there’s nothing wrong with promotional ads - but yours are not tastefully done in any way whatsoever. I often skip over Showtime channels simply due to these jarring, irritating and poorly designed messages. And I’m paying for this ?
I’m considering cancelling my Showtime subscription because I’m tired of holding the TV remote constantly in one hand just to hit the MUTE button every 5 minutes.
Have you ever thought of changing these ads into something more tastefully elegant - fit for adults ? How about elimintating that garish white background, the Star Wars sound effects and the whole childish “fire-alarm” approach to advertising ?
Now I doubt very much that this email will ever be forwarded up the chain-of-command at Showtime, because your company, like most, are hierarchical fear-based organizations, who’s employees wouldn’t dare to warn their management of negative feedback from disgruntled customers.
So lets be frank, Showtime senior management signed off on these jarring, tasteless advertisements in the first place, now didn’t they !
And you will no doubt quote me that old worn-out defense that “no one ever complained about this before”, without stopping to think that most viewers feel helpless to change things beyond their control - and wouldn’t write to you anyway.
So hear the message guys. There are lots of us out here who HATE those ads.
Get it ?
Robert
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