• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 8, 2009

As it increasingly becomes digital, out-of-home media is taking on the characteristics of other electronic media: online, mobile and television, but a new campaign that broke Monday on a network of digital billboards operated by Clear Channel, may be the first to transform the medium into a source for breaking TV news programming. In a deal negotiated by Publicis' MediaVest unit, Clear Channel Outdoor has begun disseminating breaking entertainment industry news produced by Comcast's E! Entertainment Television network on more than 125 electronic billboards nationwide.

The effort, which will run for eight weeks, is projected to reach 10 million people daily with the E! News alerts, and will be synchronized in such a way as to drive viewership to each evening's E! News telecasts on cable TV.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the companies said it was negotiated by MediaVest on E!'s behalf, and they claimed it was the first time a national brand - the brand being E! in this case - has utilized Clear Channel's outdoor digital network for simultaneous breaking news alerts aimed at a national audience.

The campaign synchronizes Clear Channel's digital campaign insertion capabilities with the Internet's RSS technology to automatically feed and update E!'s breaking news content, demonstrating how integrated and seamless outdoor media is becoming with online.

Annemarie Batur, vice president-marketing & advertising at E!, said the alerts would break throughout the day, especially just head of E! News' nightly telecasts to ensure tune-in.