|
|

'Hydra Executives', the brand new English reality-based series that pits a team of eight American contenders against a group of eight British rivals, has raked in top ratings with its pilot episode
Hydra Executives continuously breaking viewership records as the show's drama and excitement build up week after week. Critics have been lauding the show for introducing the concept of reality TV, which can potentially change the face of entertainment television in the Middle East. The program, which debuted on January 07, 2009, features a team of eight American contenders and a group of eight British rivals and the challenges they undertake to win a business grant worth USD 1 million.
With a total of four contestants eliminated - one from the UK Team and three from the US Team - the Brits are trying to keep the momentum of their early success, while the Americans are working harder to beat their opponents despite the disadvantage of being two team members short. All the tasks so far have presented the contenders with daunting challenges, which make it all the more exciting to see who will emerge as the first-ever 'Hydra Executive' in the season's 23 remaining episodes.
The show is being aired on two different timeslots - every Wednesday at 7 PM and at 11 PM on Showtime and Infinity TV. A delayed telecast of the show's latest episodes also airs every Tuesday on Hollywood.TV and Emirates TV.


Rapid TV News reports that the Showtime-Orbit merger has now started to affect jobs. The first batch of lay-offs has already started in Orbit’s headquarters located Bahrain.
Dubai-based trade magazine, Digital Production Middle East, has reported that employees have been notified and redundancies are mostly affecting commercial and marketing departments.
The consolidation of the two pay-TV companies is expected to lay-off even more jobs in the near future.
Read more.

Showtime Arabia, the leading Pay-TV network in the Middle East and North Africa, today announced it signed a five-year deal with MGM Worldwide Television, a division of Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Studios Inc., bringing a bouquet of blockbusters to Showtime customers throughout the Middle East.
An interesting poster campaign by Leo Burnett Dubai for SHOWTIME, the concept was to utilize well-known movie posters but with a 'play on words', to communicate that censorship could ruin the whole movie and change the story. SHOWTIME promises its viewers the full version of each movie, with no interruptions. This visual featured the movie “Kill Bill”, as you can see the “K” has been removed making the title “Ill Bill
Just two months after the launch of the English Premier League, SHOWTIME has announced the launch on October 1st of SHOWSPORTS 4, the new home of fight leagues and crash sports.
With the launch of the SHOW ON DEMAND service on August 1st, SHOWTIME customers with a SHOWBOX (digital video recorder) will be among the first in the world to access a video on demand service via satellite.

Regional pay-TV platform Arab Radio & Television, having lost exclusive rights to English Premiership soccer, is fighting back. RapidTVNews reports that ART has acquired rights to broadcast English Premier League games 24 hours after their initial live transmission on arch-rival Showtime Arabia’s pay-TV bouquet.
Additionally, ART has secured this coming season’s Saudi League, arguably at least as important as English soccer, and is bidding for the UAE soccer league.
Showtime has paid a small fortune to secure the English games away from ART, and will make the games the backbone of its promotional activity this coming season.
ART believe that they're covering more ground than Showtime, as they will have: National soccer, regional soccer and international soccer.
Via [ RapidTVNews ]