Apart from the big news that Showtime Arabia has won the rights to the English Premier League, there will be sweeping changes in the look of the station and its channels are to be renamed, as of 1 April.

The new channels will be branded Showcinema, Showmovies, Showsports and Showseries.

The 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 has been promoting 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.