Declining Pub Industry

Pubs are closing left right and centre and have been doing for at least ten years. Our local was experiencing a slow but steady decline in customers a few years back and the landlord decided that putting in a big telly and showing major sporting events would bring in the punters. Takings went into terminal decline, it wasn't just that he wasn't covering the costs of the Sky stuff, he was taking a lot less money than before. He soldiered on for 18 months before selling up. Somebody bought the pub, did away with the tellies and reopened it as a traditional boozer. No fruit machines, no jukebox and definitely no sky sports. The result? The business is now in rude health. The pub at the other end of the road with the big Sky Sports signs outside is, however, in decline.

Perhaps sooner or later the industry will spot that most people don't go to the pub to watch TV programmes chosen by somebody else. Most pub goers want to socialize and drink. You can't socialize with a big flat screen telly distracting you in dolby. Putting it all in 3D is not going to help.