• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 14, 2014

Clear Channel Outdoor has acquired the advertising sales and management rights for Boston’s South Station from Blue Outdoor, the companies announced Tuesday, giving Clear Channel a marquee spot in Boston’s business district.

South Station is the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s largest train station and intercity bus terminal, as well as a main stop on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. It handles around 22 million passengers per year, including 19 million MBTA commuter rail passengers and one million Amtrak passengers. By comparison, New York’s Penn Station handles around 100 million passengers per year and Newark’s Penn Station handles 35 million.

Outdoor advertising assets at South Station include two digital screens -- both measuring 17 feet wide by 10 feet tall and equipped with audio capability -- which were installed in the concourse by Blue Outdoor in 2013, as well as over 70 static ad display units.

The list of advertisers that have already executed campaigns at South Station includes Apple, JetBlue, Merrill Lynch, Samsung, Stella Artois, Maker’s Mark, Pepsi, Tropicana, and Mohegan Sun.

The New Year has seen a lot of activity in transit advertising. Last week, the National Railroad Passenger Corp., better known as Amtrak, selected McMurry/TMG as the exclusive marketer for various transit advertising assets, including posters, transparencies and LED advertising displays on Amtrak trains and in Acela Club Lounges on the Northeast Corridor. 

The contract gives McMurry/TMG, which already publishes Amtrak’s in-train Arrive magazine, the exclusive right to sell advertising on Amtrak properties, including all in-station and on-train assets featured on the Acela Express, Northeast Regional, Keystone and Empire lines, as well as posters at Acela Club Lounges inside Washington’s Union Station, New York’s Penn Station, Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station and Boston’s South Station, a separate concession from the ad sales contract acquired by Clear Channel Outdoor.