NBCU, Gas Station TV Pump Alliance

NBC/GSTV

Deals in the digital out-of-home video arena keep coming fast and furious. In the latest partnership, NBC Universal will be the exclusive entertainment content provider for GSTV, and will also serve as the local sales agent for GSTV, leveraging its local station sales forces.

The deal, orchestrated by NBC Everywhere -- NBCU's division for cross-platform distribution -- "mirrors our advertisers' desire for additional scale adjacent to NBCU's premium content, and allows us to provide the capabilities and Nielsen-confirmed metrics that our clients are looking for," said Mark French, NBC Everywhere's senior vice president and general manager.

The NBCU content and advertising will appear in four- and-a-half-minute cycles, combining local and national NBCU news, prime time, late night and cable content. As before, content packages will also include sports news from ESPN and local weather reports from AccuWeather. Previously, GSTV used news and entertainment content from CBS.

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In keeping with NBC Everywhere's mission, the GSTV partnership adds another distribution platform for NBC content, reaching over 30 million viewers per month via displays in pumps at 1,000 gas stations. Overall, GSTV's network covers more than 100 DMAs, including major markets New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia.

In June, Gas Station TV and Toyota launched a new "community-generated" TV program, "Prius Neighborhood," devoted to local events and activism. This temporary feature allowed consumers to inform and organize each other about various causes, while highlighting the brand's theme of environmental responsibility and sustainability.

To promote the "Prius Neighborhood," Toyota also ran 30-second spots on GSTV, which pointed viewers to an interconnected group of community services and applications on the Web. The campaign coincides with the launch of the third-generation Prius, a hybrid vehicle that reduces harmful emissions by reverting to electric power in urban driving.

This has been a busy summer for digital outdoor generally and gas station video networks in particular.

In June, Outcast (formerly Fuelcast) and PumpTopTV announced they were joining forces to offer advertisers a combined network reaching 20 million viewers per month via their network of digital displays in gas stations. The joint venture agreement brought together a total of 12,600 digital screens in 15 top DMAs, for which the companies claim audience reach is equivalent to a top-5 prime-time TV show.

Outcast is itself a relatively new company, created by the merger of Fuelcast, a gas-station network that operates displays in gas pumps, and Bhootan, a digital network serving gas station convenience stores.

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