Telly addicts
Market penetration: 50% of UK pubs have Sky television
Sky target audience: some 55% of viewing adults in pubs are ABC1 adults, and 60% are less than 35 years old
Additional trade attracted: £350m per year
Sky fees: publicans pay fees ranging from £35 to £360 a month
If football, beer and television are the nation's three key passions, it makes sense to combine them under the same roof in pubs equipped with big-screen televisions.
The Empire in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, installed a large TV screen just before Christmas as part of a £30,000 refurbishment and has found that 100 extra customers come into the pub every time a major sporting event is televised.
The pub is part of the Regents Inn Group, whose marketing and brand development manager Clive Consterdine says: "All of our pubs in major towns and cities now have a big screen as part of company policy."
In sporting terms, nothing can rival last year's World Cup. The Travellers Joy in Rayleigh, Essex, went to town with the theme, turning the premises into a miniature Wembley Stadium with a 27-seat grandstand.
"We ran a Best Seat in the House competition before each game, giving out raffle tickets to all of our guests and drawing the winner before kick-off," explains pub manager Bernadette Williams. "The winner and a friend were treated like kings for the duration of the match, winning a special throne in the centre of the grandstand, a bucket of Budweiser and buckets of hamburgers, chips and chicken wings from our sports menu."
At the end of the eight-week promotion, the Travellers Joy saw a more-than-30% increase in sales and profits. And the promotion has continued to have an impact on business - the Travellers Joy has become the first Hungry Horse pub to achieve a £1m turnover.
The Greene King Pub Company has introduced big-screen TVs showing Sky Sports in all of its 99 Hungry Horse pubs. "Much of what we do is geared to getting people off their sofas and having a good, relaxing time in their local pub," says marketing manager Clive Reddihough. "People can sit at home and drink while they watch the big match, but watching it on a big-screen TV with their friends and neighbours while they have a few drinks and perhaps something to eat has much more atmosphere and excitement."
Sky is the main provider of big-screen TVs, which can now be found in 50% of UK pubs. It is estimated they bring in £350m per year in additional trade.
Bruce Cuthbert, head of commercial marketing and development at Sky, believes that big screen's popularity directly relates to the demise of live football on terrestrial TV.
Monday night football
"There wasn't much live football on TV before Sky came along. Sky introduced Monday night football and turned a traditionally poor night for the licensed trade into a very busy evening for pubs," says Cuthbert. He estimates that an average of 35 people watch a game in a pub.
In Cuthbert's opinion, pubs have become "the terraces of today". "It's difficult to get into a football match nowadays and Sky offers an alternative. Watching football in pubs has become a social event," he says.
According to Sky figures, the key market for big-screen TV is community-based young people's pubs with a typical audience between 18 and 34 years old. A large proportion of viewers in pubs tend to be men, although an increasing number of women are watching. Some 60% of viewing adults in pubs are less than 35 years old, and 55% are ABC1 adults.
Any monopoly brings resentment, and Sky's dominance of the big-screen TV market has led to rumblings of discontent. Some publicans object to the fees they pay for access to Sky, which range from £35 to £360 a month, depending on a pub's commercial property rates.
"Sky has recently increased the price of its service by 30-40% in our pubs. We are unhappy at this, especially given the previous two years' steep increases," says Simon Kaye, Scottish & Newcastle Retail's sales and customer service director. "We have been reviewing our use of Sky on a pub-by-pub basis for some time and only retain it where customer demand justifies the high costs."
Cuthbert responds: "If publicans don't believe they make enough money to pay for Sky, then they simply don't have to pay for it. Most recognise we've brought something new in and are happy to pay for that service."
Television is not suitable for all pubs. Food-oriented outlets or pubs with a distinct character or image are most likely to say no. Tony Hester, head of the commercial department at the Old English Pub Company, says none of its premises has a television and he doubts they ever will. "It doesn't go hand in hand with the pubs' character, which is very much a food-led operation. We don't like TV in the same way as we don't like pool tables."
Adaptable medium
But once a television is installed, its use can be adapted to cater for the changing needs of the clientele. Scottish & Newcastle Retail understands that the type of programme shown affects the atmosphere in a pub, so programmes are chosen according to the style of pub and its customers.
"Where the customer base changes throughout the day, the TV will change correspondingly. For example, many city centre pubs are used by shoppers and business people during the day but attract a younger, trendy crowd in the evening," says Kaye.
In these pubs, TV screens are likely to be covered up in the daytime when customers want a more peaceful environment and in the evening may broadcast MTV, for example, to add to the atmosphere of the pub at night.
The sensitivities of the non-viewing customer are also taken into consideration when S&N installs a big screen.
"In S&N Retail pubs, we analyse the pub's layout prior to installation of big screens," says Kaye, "so they can be seen easily by sporting enthusiasts but are not intrusive to other customers."
The age of digital television will usher in a more diverse range of big-screen entertainment in pubs. As Cuthbert confirms: "Sky is finalising plans for its digital proposition, allowing us to create viewing exclusively for the licensed trade, with entertainment and quizzes as well as sport." n
