Music Videos Also Making Their Way To The Big Screen

Ever since the music-video revolution of the 1980s, artists' promotional clips have been occasionally shown in movie theaters as pre-show entertainment. But with the advent of digital technology, movie theaters are offering new ways to present music videos.

More theaters, such as those in the Regal Entertainment Group family, are showcasing music videos on closed-circuit TV sets placed strategically in theater lobbies and near concession stands.

Unlike retail stores or dance clubs—which usually have middle-men video pools servicing them with music videos—movie theaters are selling this advertising space directly to record companies. Currently, the videos are beamed nationwide from the company headquarters to the theaters that carry the closed-circuit TV sets.

Billboard has learned that Regal, the movie-theater industry leader, is developing a new type of video screen for its lobbies, which will eventually be able to carry custom-made content per market and even per theater.

Regal executive VP of business development Ray Nutt explains, "The end result will be content being displayed on flat screens in lobbies. If there are music videos that appeal to a certain demographic, those videos can be seen in theaters that have those demographics. It's an ideal way for music videos to be marketed locally. Instead of theaters seeing the same thing around the country, it will be custom-fit to the local market.

"The same will go for videos seen on the big screen as part of the [pre-show] intermission," he continues. "We have the digital infrastructure already on our big screens. We're test-marketing it in Denver right now, but it will be rolling out to the top 10 [U.S.] markets by the beginning of next year. By the end of 2003, the top 50 markets should have this technology."

Nutt predicts that digital technology will eventually make pre-show advertising slides obsolete.

National Cinema Network (NCN) VP of marketing Laura Adler says that NCN currently works with about 105 movie screens nationwide for its Digital On-Screen Entertainment program. In recent months, the program has showcased videos from Enrique Iglesias, Tim McGraw, Vanessa Carlton, Willie Nelson, and Hoobastank.

"People can go to the movies anytime and hear music in the film," Adler notes. "But it's another thing to see what artists look like outside of a movie soundtrack. It makes an impact, especially on people who normally don't watch TV for music videos."