• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, November 23, 2012

OnCampus Media has partnered with Barnes & Noble College Marketing to create a digital TV network consisting of over 800 screens at 400 Barnes & Noble locations at colleges and universities around the country.

With content management software provided by Dynasign, the OnCampus network will carry a combination of entertainment programming and advertising and promotions from major brands, including static and video advertising, and will also support mobile interactive channels including SMS and QR codes. Campaigns can also be coordinated with other OnCampus assets, including bus shelters, kiosks, transit bus displays and traditional billboards, campus newspapers, direct marketing, and guerrilla marketing.

According to the companies, the network should reach over four million college students per year across the U.S., generating 60 million impressions annually.

Of course, OnCampus isn’t the only company with a digital out-of-home presence on college campuses. Akoo operates a social TV network, which allows viewers to choose from music videos and other entertainment content by using their mobile phones as remote controls, and has installed digital video displays in university dining halls across the country, including big schools like Ohio State, the University of Pittsburgh, and University of California at Santa Barbara.

There were roughly 21 million college students enrolled in degree-granting institutions in 2010, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, and they wield a total $417 billion in spending power, according to the most recent edition of re:fuel's College Explorer Survey.