New Scaratings

Allows bars and restaurants to run their own live trivia nights any night of the week

Download image CARLSBAD, Calif. and LAS VEGAS, March 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- NTN Buzztime, Inc. (NYSE Amex: NTN), a leading social entertainment and integrated marketing platform for bars and restaurants, announced the launch of Hosted Trivia, a new service designed to help its customers make any night a big event. Buzztime Hosted Trivia is a unique bar trivia tool for restaurant and bar operators to keep guests in their seats, attract new consumers and bring in patrons on non-peak business nights, typically a Tuesday or a Wednesday evening.

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Hosted Trivia, a subscription-based platform, is part of Buzztime's portfolio of trivia and entertainment products and is available to all Buzztime customers in the company's vast network of bars and restaurants. With this new product, trivia hosts and emcees focus on the fun and enjoyment of the crowd, while leaving the work to Buzztime. Game action and pace is controlled through rounds of 30- and 60- question Buzztime Trivia games created specifically for "live" environments and crowds. Hosts will no longer have to read questions to the participants and then reveal the answers all at once; Buzztime Hosted Trivia displays the questions and answers throughout the game on the establishment's television screens – significantly improving the bar entertainment experience, and freeing up hosts to engage with players.

Hooters of Costa Mesa, CA was hosting live Tuesday night trivia, but it wasn't particularly easy – until they began using Buzztime Hosted Trivia. With Buzztime replacing Hooters old "paper-and-pen" method, the restaurant now runs weekly live trivia nights more effectively. Buzztime delivers the questions and results tracking on screen, so Hooters can better leverage their best brand asset —the Hooters Girls. Hooters of Costa Mesa General Manager Laura Acton stated, "Easy to use, Buzztime Live Trivia is refreshingly modern and operates much smoother than our previous live trivia event!"

In fact, Hooters of Costa Mesa developed a sure fire way to keep guests in their seats during their weekly, two hour live trivia events. To win the "Wing Party," Hosted Trivia participants have to play until the end of the game, which gets them to stay at Hooters longer and order more food and drinks. Of note, according to Laura Acton, General Manager, Hooters Costa Mesa, "Guests who play Buzztime Hosted Trivia spend nearly $5 more, increasing our check averages by $20 as most players compete in groups of four or more."

"Live Trivia Nights are great instruments for our bar and restaurant partners to increase traffic and sales and turn a slow night into an event typical of a Friday or Saturday evening," noted Michael J. Bush, President and CEO of NTN Buzztime, Inc. "In fact, according to an Arbitron study, Buzztime players visit their favorite establishments eight times per month, on average, which is twice more than they visit other locations. They also stay nearly 30 minutes longer than non-playing customers."

Hosted Trivia provides locations the ability to control the pace of Buzztime Trivia games and allows the host, which could be a current staff member, to act as an emcee – interjecting humor, sarcasm and personality to each game. The host or emcee is able to move at the desired pace, from question to answer to the next question, through a keystroke on the Buzztime Playmaker® with leaderboards displayed every five questions so the guests know who's currently winning the game.

Buzztime employs its network of approximately 3,900 bars and restaurants to strategically reach targeted audiences in a unique way. Additionally, Buzztime engages more than 1,500,000 players who participate in over 50,000,000 bar trivia, cards and sports games each year on its network.

Buzztime provides clients with branded sports and interactive bar games that align with the brands' marketing campaigns; live hosted trivia tournaments throughout the United States; and direct-to-consumer marketing initiatives through Buzztime's social networking and e-mail marketing campaigns.

I'm sure Showdown players will love pushing this on Tuesdays.

Has anyone here participated in BT hosted trivia? It's been available for a while now. Just curious to hear some feedback.

BO

It's basically a 60 question game of Countdown. The only differences are:

- there are no clues
- points don't tick down, you either get 1000 or 0
- The host manually controls the advancement from question to question. The host reads the question (which is somewhat redundant since it's displayed on the tv just like a regular buzztime game), gives everyone a chance to answer, then hits a button to reveal everyone's answer and go on to the next question.

Personally, I had two complaints. First, the reason I enjoy live trivia as a diversion from Buzztime is that in live trivia there is no multiple choice; you have to actually know the answer and be able to recall it. With Buzztime you have a 20% chance of guessing it; furthermore there are many times when you won't be able to recall the answer upon seeing the question, but will be able to identify it once you see the answers. For example if asked to name the capital of Australia, someone might not remember that it's Canberra. In live trivia they'd be screwed, but in Buzztime live triva once they see the choices of "Paris, London, Canberra, Washington, Cairo" they'll either recognize Canberra or be able to get it by process of elimination.

Secondly, in live trivia they will often have different rounds with different themes to break up the monotony and keep the game interesting. Buzztime could have done this but instead it's just 60 straight general trivia questions. There are no predefined rounds - when I played the host just paused the game every ten questions for a break. With their multimedia capability they could even have a "identify the picture" round or "name that movie clip". They can't do much about the multiple choice issue but this is something they could really improve on.

The only real advantage I see is that it's faster than your typical live trivia game since the computer handles the scoring automatically instead having the host or someone else manually review answer sheets and compile scores.

I played Hosted Trivia and I found it a little bit on the boring side. Plus you are also (at least in the Greater Cincinnati area where I live) competing with another company that does Live Hosted trivia in a different format. It has its pluses and minuses...

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Tiffany

Occassional Haunt - Jax Tavern, Forest Park, OH

And the answer is......4?? 42....the answer to life, the universe and everything

Something about this format just doesn't interest me. I understand why they are trying it, live trivia can really fill a bar on an otherwise dead night, but if I want to play Countdown... I'll do just that. Live trivia is more about the creativity and personality of the host. I think BONZO's comments are exactly what I feared that Buzztime Hosted Trivia would be.

It seems like a bar could just give away a prize for winning any game of Buzztime and wouldn't need the additional expense that the "Hosted Trivia" brings. Wasn't it Buzztime that recently REDUCED their games to 10 questions? Now they are trying to promote a 60 question game?

That's what I say...DOWN w/ the 10 question game!!!!!!!!

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In The BT (Buzztime Testament...can be found in RARE printings after the New Testament) the Book of Jesse, Chapter 4, Verse 20 states:

"I Just Smoked Your @$$!!!" (Jes. 4:20)

All a BT trivia bar has to do is announce and advertise that they are having a Showdown Smackdown on Tuesday with prizes. I have played live trivia at bars, even though I did well, I think it is slow and boring.

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"Truth Like Football. Gets kicked around much, before reaching goal." - Charlie Chan

" Don't look back, The bastards might be gaining on you." - Satchel Paige

Frank