Meerkats save Orange Wednesdays

Orange Wednesdays are no more, but you can still get two-for-one cinema tickets if you're a Comparethemarket.com customer.

EE pulled the plug on its weekly Wednesday movie offering in February after running it for 12 years, but the meerkat-marketed comparison website has stepped in to fill the void.

Now if you use Comparethemarket.com to do anything from changing energy suppliers to switching broadband providers, you get a year's worth of weekly two-for-one cinema tickets valid on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

However, you'll need to have bought something via the price comparison site each year to renew your free cinema ticket allocation.

The firm's statement on the Meerkat Movies venture read: "If you are one of our existing customers you have been given automatic access to MEERKAT MOVIES for the remaining duration of your policy, from today.

"If you have bought a qualifying product in the last twelve months with comparethemarket.com you could be taking advantage of your 2 for 1 cinema tickets every Tuesday or Wednesday straight away."

The initiative will be rolled out nationwide from April 3, though take-up sounds like it could prove more complicated than signing up to a single phone provider for a two-year contract.

EE announced its plans to kill off Orange Wednesdays last December, telling IT Pro it was changing the deal in response to more film services being available online.

It said at the time: "After 10 great years our brand has changed and our customers' viewing habits have also evolved so it's time to move on."

Its replacement offering, called EE Film Club, offers a weekly movie rental from streaming site Wukai.tv for 1 (and a 35p text) every week.