Avanti signs up 1,000th venue

Avanti Screenmedia, the UK's leading provider of screen-media, has this week propelled its pub estate through the 1,000-venue barrier following a series of contract gains with operators including the Sports Cafe, Ladhar, Thwaites, Independent Leisure and Shepherd Neame.

Avanti now has 1,005 contracted pub and bar venues receiving its satellite TV entertainment channels, watched by an audience of 4.5 million customers per week.

This growing estate is helping to attract more top brands to advertise on its channels, generating revenue that Avanti shares back with signed-up operators. Avanti targets an urban youth audience and these contract gains mean that of the 3,000 high-street pub and bar venues in the UK, the company now has a 33% share of the market.

Leading northern brewer Daniel Thwaites has signed up to help improve its bars' atmosphere and boost sales. The operator is installing Avanti's music-based MVN channel and purely visual Magnetic channel in its estate.

Thwaites retail operations manager Ken Lupton explains: 'We have signed up to take Avanti's MVN and Magnetic channels to offer our customers visual stimulation throughout the day.

'The MVN music package gives us a repertoire of content, which each individual outlet can choose from. This is helping us create the right mood to attract and keep customers at all times of the day. In addition, we like the system's in-bar marketing tool, which allows staff to post promotional messages on-screen.

MVN delivers the latest mix of music and videos. The service allows the operator to select an ambiance to suit the mood of different periods of the day. The system also provides the operator with graphical templates for local managers to create high-impact promotional messages.

Magnetic, like MVN, has four main variants, with programmes covering general editorial, club visuals, lifestyle and sports.