• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, February 28, 2008

The burgeoning digital out-of-home market is getting yet another new player with the creation by Transworld Media of a new digital network serving over 1,200 independent convenience stores. The network includes convenience stores in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Some 100 stores in the Dallas area have already had the equipment installed by Real Digital Media, which created the technology. The rest slated to receive the digital displays on an aggressive schedule over 2008.

Advertisers can buy 15-second, 30-second and one-minute slots through media agencies and third parties, including SeeSaw Networks, which operates its own national network of digital signage and has entered into a strategic partnership with Transworld.

The new Transworld network straddles several high-growth categories, including digital out-of-home and in-store media, both which have proliferated in recent years, including networks targeting convenience store-type retail.

Also on Wednesday, CBS said it is expanding its "Outernet" of place-based video to a number of pharmacies. The expansion brings CBS into partnership with Lifeclinic International, which operates kiosks that monitor vital signs in more than 25,000 pharmacies around the country.

In June 2006 Duane Reade, a New York City pharmacy chain, got a place-based video network courtesy of the In-Store Broadcasting Network. And in 2007, Gas Station TV announced it would expand its network to include video displays in convenience stores attached to gas stations. The in-store video complements digital displays already installed by the company at eye level in gas pumps, created to reach consumers while they fill their tanks.

The move to in-store broadcasting comes as Nielsen In-Store, in partnership with the In-Store Marketing Institute, refines a new metric for measuring in-store media exposure. Nielsen's coverage includes retail TV, plus radio networks, point-of-purchase displays and other signage.