It's a goal!

Lagos - MTech, a leading African mobile content provider, and OSMi, sports marketing company, have won the rights to power a groundbreaking mobile Premier League highlights and news service across Africa (excluding South Africa).

The new offering will provide near-live coverage of all the 380 Premiership matches in the 2007/2008 season, individual match and weekend 'round-up' highlight packages as well as SMS competitions and other mobile content. The company will go live with the service in Nigeria and across sub-Saharan Africa when the Barclays Premier League begins on the 11th August, with operator partnerships to be announced shortly beforehand.

"The popularity of the Barclays Premier League is at fever pitch across the continent. African newspapers devote huge space to match reports, and radio talk shows feature heated debate between rival supporters," said Chika Nwobi, Managing Director at MTech. "Combine this popularity with the potential that mobile content is showing in Africa and you have a winning proposition."

Africa is the fastest growing cellular market in the world with cellular connections passing the 200 million mark in Q1 2007 (Wireless Intelligence, May 07) and 184 million subscriber additions expected by December 2011 (Informa Telecoms and Media, February 07).

"During the 2006/2007 season we received over five million subscribers to our Premiership-related SMS News service," added Chika Nwobi. "This was a significant achievement and we are confident that the new service which includes near-live video and pictures will easily surpass that figure in 2007/2008."

"We believe MTech has the right platform on which to further raise the profile of the Premier League in a region which has shown great appetite for football." said Premier League chief spokesman, Dan Johnson, "We look forward to working with them to bring all of the very best of the Premier League action to mobiles across the continent"

About MTech

MTech is the premier mobile content and media audience participation solutions provider in Africa. Founded in 2001, the company distributes made-for-mobile content as well as offering marketing, financial and entertainment solutions. The company currently engages with an audience of over 60 million mobile users throughout Africa, working in partnership with 14 network operators including MTN, Glo, CelTel and Safaricom.

MTech's partners also include broadcasters such as NTA, CoolFM, TV3, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, Nation TV, KissFM Minaj Broadcasting and Silverbird Television, plus content providers such as Ludus-ETV and Nigezie.

MTech www.mtechcomm.com is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, with offices and technology development centres in Kenya, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Uganda.