Nicholas Richards, Business Writer

SportsMax, a 24-hour sports cable channel, has signed a distribution deal with International Telecommunications Satellite Organization Limited (Intelsat) to provide digital satellite service across the Caribbean, the sports cable channel has announced.

The move comes weeks behind the RJR media group's launch of its cable sports channel, and appears to be a move by SportsMax to hold on to market share.

Broaden reach

Chief executive officer, Oliver McIntosh, said however, that despite the competition from RJR, it had been SportsMax's intention to broaden its reach to the region and began distributing there in 2005, three years after the company's inception.

"Our decision to utilise digital satellite transmission is nothing new ... it was there from day one," said the CEO.

"In fact, we welcome the competition because it serves our interests; the competition allows us to improve on our product."

SportsMax is a Jamaican-based cable channel that airs local, regional and international sporting events throughout the Caribbean.

McIntosh was cagey on the size of the investment he is making, but said the Caribbean represents a potential market of 600,000 to 700,000 cable subscribers, which SportsMax hopes to secure by next year.

To reach all these cable viewers "is a huge investment, but I cannot disclose how much we are currently spending on the expansion, but our overall aim is to reach every single household in the Caribbean," he said.

The deal with Intelsat takes SportsMax programmes to 14 countries. The sports channel plans to enter the French Caribbean market - Guadeloupe and Martinique - as well as Barbados and Turk's and Caicos, by next year.

Cable subscribers

It is not certain how many cable subscribers are located in these four territories, but with a combined population of almost 1.2 million people, "they account for a substantial portion of cable subscribers across the Caribbean," said McIntosh.

The four island's are already counted in SportsMax's target of 700,000 viewers.

The company is also setting sights on Cuba, a Spanish-speaking country of 11 million people, whose cable market it expects to open up soon.

"But for now," said McIntosh, "our main aim is to reach the over six million people in the English Speaking Caribbean by the end of this year."