Candid camera

Rival TV networks, piracy and free-to-air providers are just some of the challenges facing Marc-Antoine d’Halluin. But the CEO of Showtime Arabia has seen it all before. He talks frankly to Rob Morris about the battles ahead.

It's an unfortunate pirate DVD seller who unsuspectingly darkens Marc-Antoine d'Halluin's door. With a false sense of security, optimistic of a sale, he'll be ushered into the Frenchman's Dubai abode to peddle his bootleg movies and TV shows.

But within seconds, the seller will realise that stepping over the threshold was a big mistake. He is, after all, dealing with Showtime Arabia's CEO and president; a man charged with boosting the pay-TV network's subscriber numbers and eradicating any threats, such as dodgy DVD dealers. "He certainly won't be leaving with his films," d'Halluin warns.

The piracy disease, as d'Halluin calls it, is a major concern for networks like Showtime that pay huge amounts to air Hollywood movies. But the chief executive insists that Dubai's authorities are clamping down on the growing number of bootleg dealers selling door-to-door or from street-side stalls.

"We've helped organise raids with police and agencies in the region on shops selling fake DVDs or pirated Showtime cards [giving unsubscribed viewers access to the network's channels]," he says.

"It shows how effective we can be when there's cooperation, and people realise they are breaking the law. It's a big issue and there is a boundary that you should not go beyond."

He remains defiant amid suggestions that the public's frustration with paying high prices for genuine DVDs has contributed to rising piracy levels. "At least one out of two fake DVDs won't give you the whole movie experience, with disastrous sound and image quality," he stresses.

"It's impacting on the DVD, pay-TV, music and video games industries in a massive way. It's also affecting a region where, from a regulatory standpoint, we've only recently become strong enough to follow through with regulations and enforcement to address the issue."

Despite his passionate outburst, d'Halluin conveys a casualness often associated with the French. Dressed in a blue pinstriped shirt with light grey suit, and sitting on a comfy leather couch at Showtime's headquarters in Media City, he shows little emotion.

Most topics fail to draw a reaction, with his demeanour remaining calm throughout. He does, however, apologise for occasionally breaking off the conversation to either answer the phone or blow his nose - despite the stifling heat outside, d'Halluin has managed to catch a cold.

Suffering the occasional sneezing bout, he struggles on to discuss Showtime's development since his arrival in 2007. With more than 15 years' TV industry experience, d'Halluin was deemed the right man to help Showtime reach its potential. The network had performed adequately since its launch in 1997, but d'Halluin was convinced it could thrive in a region with a relatively undeveloped pay-TV market.

His first challenge was educating Middle Eastern viewers about TV subscription packages. For audiences in the West, arranging direct debits or paying monthly fees for satellite channels is common.

But d'Halluin soon realised that many subscribers in this region were still sending cheques or paying cash. In addition, the abundance of free-to-air channels compared with European markets was, and continues to be, a big issue for d'Halluin.

"There is an unbelievable number of free-to-air channels here, with more than 450 today available to around 95% of the homes in the Gulf," he states.

"There is nowhere else in the world where you'll find that. In Europe, there were only five or six, while other channels were provided through satellite TV. Two years ago you would have found only 250 in the Middle East, so the number has almost doubled. Not many of them are excellent quality, but up to 50 are very good."

Another complication is the number of pay-TV providers operating in the Middle East. In most markets where d'Halluin has worked, such as Scandinavia, France and the UK, only one satellite TV company exists. But this region is a different proposition, with Showtime and two other providers competing for subscribers.

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