Licensees up in arms over Sky's new advertising campaign
Sky has come under heavy fire for its new advertising campaign, which encourages viewers to stay at home rather than go down the pub.
The national poster and TV campaign, launched earlier this week, focuses on the fact that viewers don't need to leave the house because there's plenty of things to watch on Sky at home.
But the campaign has infuriated licensees who said it encourages people to boycott their local pub. Stuart Allan who runs the Cranleigh arms in Kirkcowan, Scotland has protested about Sky's increasing costs and said this latest news "summed up the company".
"How can it market the Sky package to pubs on one hand saying it will bring customers in, then on the other hand market it to domestic customers encouraging them to stay at home," he said.
"Has it not thought about the consequences of this campaign? If licensees take their packages out of pubs, Sky will need to find at least four new domestic customers to make up for the loss of each pub contract."
Jane Williams of the Cricketers in Manchester said she wasn't happy with the campaign but didn't think it would affect business. "I don't think it'll make much difference. It's just unfortunate that they've chosen the campaign," she said.
Many licensees are already up in arms because of soaring subscription costs. An increasing number of pubs are taking Sky out because they say they cannot afford to pay the rising costs. Greene King scrapped over a quarter of its managed house Sky subscriptions in September because of costs. The move came after the company discovered broadcasting live football matches was not lifting sales enough to justify the cost of having the package.
Some licensees have complained to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) claiming that Sky has an unfair monopoly of the pub market, but the OFT has said it will not be taking action. Nick Bish, chief executive of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, said: "Sky has a bad relationship with the pub industry but Sky has two businesses that run side by side its domestic arm and the business one that are seperate from each other."
Mark Hastings, spokesman for the British Beer and Pub Association said pubs had nothing to worry about. "Going to the pub is Britain's most popular social activity which is why currently pubs are attracting larger numbers of people and will continue to do so."
But a spokesperson for Sky said: "Sky's Christmas advertising campaign is not designed as a call to action to "stay at home". Instead, "Stay in and go somewhere different" is a much broader concept that is intended to evoke the huge range of entertainment possibilities offered by Sky digital.
"The use of bar imagery is simply a visual analogy for choice. Just as pubs offer customers a wide selection of drinks - so too does Sky offer the broadest choice in digital TV."
Related articles:
Greene King scraps 100 Sky contracts (5 September 2002)
OFT to take no further action over Sky (23 August 2002)
Licensee calls for Sky boycott over latest price increase (5 July 2002)
