Strategies for Success in the UK Cinema Industry - Product Innovation

In this six minute interview with The Economist, our good friend Tim Richards, CEO of Vue Cinemas, discusses the strategies the company has adopted as VUE has completed its massive investment in digital projection.

Of course, the core product of Vue and its competitors remains the showing blockbuster Hollywood films. However, as Vue has completed the digitisation of every cinema in the UK, it is now able to extend the use of the cinemas to a wider range of customer services, including (of course) exam-coaching workshops by tutor2u!

Tim coins the phrase Event Cinema to cover everything that Vue offers that is non-film related. For example, Vue along with up to 200 other cinemas live-screened the Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode. Vue regularly features live opera and theatre performances, music gigs and sporting events.

This extension to the use of multiplex cinemas has only been made possible because of the introduction of digital projectors to cinema screens. This has enabled enabled Vue to reach and serve a more diverse customer base.

Tim explains that another benefit of digitisation is that it has given Vue significantly more operational flexibility than before. When it launched its flagship Westfield Stratford venue (a tutor2u location), it was able to screen a portfolio of over 40 films in the first week, substantially more than would have been possible when Vue's projection systems were entirely analogue-based.