Football season preview
Live football on TV will once again be dominated by Sky Sports with 43 Barclays Premiership games being screened over the first five months of the season plus Football League, UEFA Champions League matches and more.
For the first time Premiership, Coca-Cola League, Carling Cup and selected Champions League matches will be broadcast in high definition TV. If you've invested in the kit that means sharper, clearer pictures and surround sound to heighten the experience for your customers.
"It's something we've been working on for a year," says Sky Sports managing director Vic Wakeling. "The results have been superb - it's the most exciting development in sports broadcasting since the introduction of colour."
Newly-promoted Sheffield United take on title hopefuls Liverpool in the channel's Premiership curtain-raiser on August 19 but licensees are likely to be most looking forward to the mouth-watering double header of Chelsea vs Liverpool and Manchester United vs Arsenal kicking off at 1pm and 4pm respectively on the afternoon of Sunday September 17. Get the extra staff booked in now!
Other early season highlights include Championship title-holders Reading vs Arsenal on October 22 and Manchester United vs Chelsea on November 26, another sure-fire pub-packer.
It's wise not to forget, though, that, added together, followers of Football League clubs outnumber those of Premiership teams and Sky has upped its coverage of the Coca-Cola League by 10 games a season to show 70 matches across the three divisions.
Half the teams in the League will appear in the first three months of the season with the opening weekend - August 5 and 6 - featuring Luton Town vs Leicester City, Coventry City vs Sunderland and Derby County vs Southampton.
Ex-Premiership sides Sunderland and West Bromwhich Albion clash on August 28, a Monday evening kick-off while the third relegatee Birmingham travel to Stoke City on August 12.
Sky has also bagged exclusive live coverage of the the Community Shield match between Chelsea and Liverpool on Sunday August 13 plus two live games from the first round of the Carling Cup - Accrington Stanley vs Nottingham Forest on August 21 and Leyton Orient vs West Bromwich Albion on August 24.
Sky's Setanta Sports has also increased live screenings from the Bank of Scotland Premier League, with 60 matches being show exclusively this season, 22 more than last.
And for those of you who have splashed out for Sky PremPlus pay-per-view there are another 50 live games including the three major derbies - Everton vs Liverpool on September 9, Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur on December 2 and Manchester United vs Manchester City on December 9.
You can keep up to date with fixtures through www.skysports.com, on Sky Text page 220 or via the weekly Sky Sports Media Bulletin. You can also now have updates sent direct to you mobile phone thanks to the SkyPubAlert text service.
The power of football
The power of football in boosting pub trade - and especially beer sales - was amply demonstrated by the World Cup this summer.
One the day of England's final match against Portugal, Carlsberg estimates that three-and-a-half times as much Carlsberg Lager and nearly three times as much Carlsberg Export was sold compared to a non-football Saturday.
The 4pm kick-off saw the biggest pre-match beer sales uplift of the tournament, demonstrating the importance to licensees of getting fans in before the match. But it also showed what an impact the result can have - many pubs emptied rapidly after England's defeat and instead of it being the biggest Saturday of the year evening trade suffered and was below that for a normal Saturday.
- Carling's "Get a Result" World Cup promotion has been pronounced a success with drinkers sending more than a million texts in response and winning between them more than £280,000. About half the entries came from the on-trade.
Pubco names starting 11
In the wake of the World Cup Scottish & Newcastle Pub Enterprises is encouraging its lessees to build on the momentum in the domestic football season. Out of its 1,600 leased pubs, 1,000 of them feature football and 700 show live games on a weekly basis, meaning football plays an important roll in the estate.
More plasma screens have been installed following their success in the World Cup and pubs are being provided with monthly match fixture programmes to help them pre-sell games.
"The campaign to maximize profit from football began with one-to-one meetings with operations and sales managers who provided lessees with support packs offering advice on how to grow sales and increase speed of service during busy periods," explains head of marketing Matthew Woodward.
"Pubs will be judged on presentation, speed of service and the all-important atmosphere. Like any game, it is the training and preparation beforehand that bears dividends on the day."
To help lessees remember key elements of promoting football S&N has given its advice a footy twist.
1 Scoreboard - plasma, projection or multiple - make sure they can be seen from all angles
2 Match grub - easy to prepare, easy to serve, easy to eat
3 Team manager - run your own promotions
4 Team players - communicate what you're doing and get people involved. Word of mouth is one of the best forms of advertisement
5 Tactics - plan ahead with pre-ordered rounds and bottles-only bar areas to ease congestion
6 Home games - consider pitchers and table service
7 Support the team - even a few flags can create the right kind of atmosphere
8 Theatre of dreams - use available point-of-sale to promote your events
9 Offside - don't forget the girls
10 Fair play - encourage responsible drinking
11 Early kick-off - promote and advertise your events in advance
Going into extra time
Screening Premiership football requires a sizeable investment these days, bearing in mind the cost, not only of Sky subs but the high quality screens it takes to attract the fans.
So the longer you can keep people in the pub either side of the big match, and the more you can make use of your screens, the more you can make football pay.
Buzztime broadcasts live quizzes and games to pubs including Texas Hold 'Em and Cutthroat Poll - a version of Killer - which give customers the chance to win prizes of up to £1,000.
"It makes sense to find ways to get more customers in before a live Premiership game or to keep them in afterwards," says director Chris Hawkins. "We've found it can improve a pub's takings by as much as £1,000 a week."
Publican award-winners and Greene King Managers of the Year Iain and Steph Reay have Buzztime at their pub, the County Arms in Winchester, Hampshire.
"Buzztime keeps our customers in the pub for longer," says Steph. "The wide range of games are played heavily, on top of which we schedule Texas Hold 'Em Poker tournaments which are very popular. In fact customers have to put their names down in advance to ensure their place in the game.
"We regularly put the advertising slots to good effect to highlight up and coming events or deals."
Sky's quiz, available to subscribers on Channel 882, is another way of keeping fans in the pub, and this season the questions are not just on football but a wide range of sports.
A total of 40 quizzes will run on Mondays at 10pm and Thursdays at 8pm. The quiz's four rounds, each with five questions, are:
- Pure Class - covering all sports, with a focus on individuals at the top of their game
- Back of the Net - footy questions
- Racing for the Line - questions covering a range of sports
- Team Spirit - questions focusing on team sports.
