Entertainment: Carry on screening

It's now easier than ever to turn your pub into a movie theatre, says Phil Mellows.

With cinemas now able to serve drinks, it's only right that pubs should start showing films. Growing numbers of licensees are taking the opportunity to attract new customers on a quiet night, maximising the use of their big screen, and we can expect to see the trend develop further thanks to the new licensing laws.

Spirit Group and Eldridge Pope are among the pub groups that have experimented with film seasons while others have introduced mini children's cinemas into family pubs as a way of keeping the kids amused while parents are enjoying themselves in the bar.

So what do you need to turn your pub into a movie theatre? Apart from a screen and a DVD player - you guessed it - you need a licence. Without one, public screenings of films break copyright laws.

Licences are available from Filmbank, the distributor for the major American and British film studios, which has 8,000 titles on its books, some available within three months of cinema release.

Single-Title Licence​

As the name suggests, you buy these on a title-by-title basis. There is a flat fee of £60 for audiences up to 100 or £100 for audiences up to 250. You have to source the title through Filmbank but there is no extra charge for the loan of the film. You are only allowed to promote and advertise the screening within the pub or direct to customers, through email or text message for instance.

Commercial Licence​

This licence is also on a title-by-title basis but the pub can charge for screenings and promote to the general public in the press, online, on the radio and so on. The fee will be a minimum of £60 or 35 per cent of the royalty from door takings, whichever is the greater. Again all titles have to come through Filmbank and there is no rental.

Public Video Screening Licence (PVS)​

The PVS licence has only recently been created by Filmbank in response to the growing number of retailers that show films as background entertainment for shoppers and offers the most flexibility. You can buy an annual licence to screen as many films as you want, renting them from a local shop, and it costs only £75 for audiences up to 250.

The downside is stricter regulation. You're not allowed to charge people to watch and, more importantly for pubs, you can't promote or advertise a screening in any way. But Filmbank believes it has great potential if licensees use their imagination.

Apart from the possibility of showing a film as background to add to the ambience, the most obvious use is showing children's films in family pubs, where the kids can simply be plonked down in front of the screen for some cheap, low maintenance entertainment.

Filmbank also suggests screening a film as part of a themed event. For instance, you could invite customers to a Grease night with fancy dress and a disco, and show the film as a bonus. Or you could angle the evening on food, charging customers for a package that includes meal, drink and a film.

The latter idea has already worked well in a number of hotels.

Or you could just do it as an alternative to whatever sport happens to be on.

• For more information go to www.filmbank.co.uk​, where you can also find a full list of available films.

Pictured: Pirates of the Caribbean - just one of the 8,000 films that, with the correct licence, you can screen in your pub.​

A big screen for big profits​

Plasma screen technology is transforming the environment in many pubs and bars, especially on the high street where the entertainment on offer goes beyond sport.

Avanti Screenmedia, the biggest programming provider to the bar sector, now supplies more than 1,100 bars, mainly with its MVN - Music Video Network - package that can be tailored to different audiences.

But the success of this medium goes beyond helping to create an atmosphere. Avanti's research shows pretty conclusively that, if you've got good screens broadcasting the right content, it can attract customers, encourage them to stay longer and, thanks to the ad breaks, influence their buying behaviour. Indeed, it's the combination of entertainment and advertising that is proving most effective.

Here are some of the stats from Avanti's latest research:

• Avanti reaches 4.9 million bar-goers a week
• 66 per cent of customers agree that screens improve the atmosphere
• 23 per cent will visit the bar more often
• 27 per cent stay longer because of the screens
• 63 per cent are tempted to buy the products they see advertised
• local messaging on screen brings an average 33 per cent rise in sales of the promoted brand
• sales of a product increase by an average 14 per cent when advertised
• over a long-term campaign Bacardi increased its market share by 28 per cent.