Thank goodness God created the iPlayer in that case because you can still watch the show if you follow this link www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=countryfile
Landlords, a potential pub co-op and industry leaders told us of the challenges pubs face - supermarkets, tax, changing consumer habits - and we were given a depressing montage of boarded-up boozers in rural settings.
Thankfully the programme wasn’t just looking for problems, but solutions as well.
We saw how, with the help of Pub is the Hub (www.pubisthehub.org.uk), The Sycamore Inn in Parwich, Derbyshire, had expanded its services with a village shop. It was working well, but the licensee was putting in 80 hours a week to make it happen.
One member of the co-op that was looking to take-over another struggling village pub suggested that its travails were due to a lack of marketing under the previous regime.
Elsewhere in the show it was stated that pubs need to do so much more than sell drink and food these days.
Now this is where Inapub can help. I know you will probably say ‘well, you would say that wouldn’t you’ but online marketing is essential for pubs looking to grow their customer database.
A survey by Deloitte last week revealed that an increase in ‘going out occasions’ was being driven by 18 to 34-year-olds looking for offers online.
This is where www.inapub.co.uk can help. With our website, app, and links with numerous data partners we can get your information about events, drinks, offers etc to thousands of prospective punters.
We can help you build databases and work out the best way of getting in touch with these people – be it text, email, Twitter, Facebook or via a variety of different websites.
Most of this won’t even cost you a penny.
If you are serious about your online solution then give www.inapub.co.uk a look or download or iTunes app from the app store – the Android version is on its way.
We are confident that we can really help pubs in this area and be part of the solution to pubs getting more people through their doors.
This is, after all, what everybody in the pub trade wants. And while it is refreshing and important for programmes such as Countryfile to focus on how vital pubs are to their communities let’s hope that in the future they will be able to return to the subject matter and reveal how things have turned around.
Perhaps they might even be able to show a montage of how thriving pubs can help unite and support communities.
Matt Eley is the Inapub editor
