A digital version of Ken Bruce’s BBC Radio 2’s PopMaster quiz is to be rolled out to pubs around the country in what has been described as a revolution in pub quizzing.
Billed the UK’s most popular music quiz, PopMaster is enjoyed by 8.2m people every weekday morning and the expansion will see provider Startle International roll it out to pubs across the country as an interactive nationwide pub quiz.
Pubs will be charged a fee to sign up for the service and will be able to compete simultaneously against one another through teams of players and individuals. The quiz will be accessed via The Cloud Wi-Fi and played through a digital jukebox.
A trial run involving 500 people has already been carried out.
Pride in product
The director of the Startle Quiz arm of the business, Michael Lawrence, said the expansion into pubs had been in the making for a few years.
“After some fine-tuning, including adding new features, we’ve created a product we are really proud of and one that has so far been received really well.”
The new digital version will have pre-prepared questions and an automatic digital scoring system.
The option to play against other pubs throughout the UK allows for a bigger prize, upwards of £1,000 for the winning team, the actual amount dependant on the number of participants.
Revolutionise the pub quiz
Startle’s head of music Phil Swern said: “It’s great to see how far PopMaster has come in the past 15 years. I really believe that the technology we’ve developed will revolutionise the pub quiz.”
Ken Bruce added that since first developed as an interactive version for Children In Need in 2014, he had seen the technology develop into something that never fails to deliver a good time.
“We only have two people competing on the radio show each day, but there are millions who are participating in their homes and offices around the country.
“What better way for them to join in than down at their local pub.”