digital out-of-home video market to post double-digit revenue increases over the next three to five years. As Mark French, senior vp of New York-based NBC Everywhere, NBC’s digital out-of-home video business operation, explained, “There are many things you can do on place-based platforms that you can’t do on TV or even the Internet.” Major broadcast TV networks such as NBC and CBS have made strong commitments to the digital out-of-home market. NBC has an agreement with Ideacast — a company that delivers digital, out-of-home TV advertising platforms — which allows viewers access to CNBC and MSNBC content. The company also partnered with the University Network to provide NBC On Campus, which currently reaches almost six million students on 181 college campuses. NBC Everywhere’s other out-of-home efforts include: NBC in Taxi, a strategic partnership with Clear Channel Taxi; NBC@Times Square, a video billboard owned by NBC Universal; NBC SchoolChannel One, Fuelcast Network, and NBC@Supermarkets. NBC Everywhere also has a partnership with New York’s Arena Media Network, a firm specializing in out-of-home advertising in sporting and concert facilities, which has screens near concession stands in ballparks and arenas nationwide. Connecticut-based CBS Outernet, a division of CBS, operates customized digital video networks in high-traffic retail locations. Its in-store TV networks now span over 10,800 U.S. locations, reaching 100 million viewers monthly. Those networks include a grocery network, which is currently installed in 1,500 grocery stores nationwide, and GameStop TV, which reaches over 4,300 GameStop stores across the country. CBS Outernet is also delivered through AutoNet TV, reaching over 5,000 auto service centers nationwide. Plus, it reaches hundreds of millions of monthly viewers through programming and/or sales arrangements with Gas Station TV, TheBITE Network, Mall of America, Royal Caribbean Cruises, the HealiumNetwork and Simon Malls, among others. According to Liz Ronan, vp, Alternative Marketing, for CBS Television, CBS’s efforts in the out-of-home digital video market are largely promotional and brand-building in nature, aimed at generating exposure for the network’s shows. According to David Leider, CEO of New York-based Destination Media, which operates the Gas Station TV Network (GSTV), out-of-home networks have the ability to deliver TV content as a single channel in a more “actionable” environment to a captive audience without the intrusion of DVRs and other new media. Currently, GSTV reaches 30 million viewers on a monthly basis at 1,000 gas stations, and is targeted at an active 18plus audience of drivers on the go. From the perspective of Jason Brown, president of Advertising Sales and Marketing for IdeaCast, public places offer great visibility for TV programming. IdeaCast’s Health Club TV network is available in over 1,000 health clubs generating 170 million annual impressions. Its Airline TV network is available on 190 planes of three carriers, covering 27,000 screens, and reaching 37 million passengers. Its viewership is diverse agewise, with 71 percent of its audience at health clubs between 18 and 49, and 68 percent of its audience on airlines between 25 and 54. And there’s significant evidence that viewing TV in the digital out-of-home market generates a real boost in at-home viewing, according to Bill Myers, cofounder and COO of Texas-based indoorDIRECT, which operates TheBITE Network, billed as a “cutting-edge network providing an insightful look at the world of news, entertainment and sports.” For example, Turner Broadcasting found in a recent test with National CineMedia that screenings of its shows in theaters led to a significant increase in at-home viewership of that programming. Perhaps one of the most striking indications of the impact of TV viewing in the out-of-home market on at-home viewing was the success of the program Everybody Loves Raymond, largely due to its screenings on American Airlines. Currently, TheBITE Network has a long-term contract with 1,000 restaurant locations reaching 10 million viewers a month. Typically, its audience is 53-55 percent male and 45-47 percent female. It is also fairly evenly distributed in the 18-25, 26-34, 35-44, 44-54, and 55-plus age groups, said Myers. The digital out-of-home video market has special advantages for TV, because it offers “more viewer engagement, is closer to the point-of-purchase, and is TiVoproof,” pointed out Bill Powers, executive vp of Sales for Access 360 Media, a multi-platform media network with offices in New York and Venice, California that connects young adult consumers with the products they seek. A key focus in the digital out-of-home market has been reaching the elusive young adult audience. Those in the 12-34 age range are particularly hard to reach now, and their media consumption habits have changed dramatically, said Powers. “They don’t watch TV on someone else’s schedule. They watch TV online and on DVRs,” he said. The genre of TV programming in the digital out-of-home market is dictated by the location in which it’s shown, Brown stressed. For example, live entertainment, news, and sports programming typically work well in health clubs. IdeaCast’s health clubs show content from CNN and CNBC. Short content bites with updates, facts, and trivia pertaining to the news, weather, and sports presented in a “store and forward” context (a technique common in messaging services where a data transmission is sent from one device to a another, but first passes through a server that is used by the message service to store the transmitted message until the receiving device can be located), are more appropriate for environments with short “dwell times,” such as taxis, noted Brown. Destination Media’s Leider echoed this sentiment, pointing out that longer-form dramatic programming or movie trailers work well in movie theaters. For many other venues, with shorter windows and dwell times of around five minutes, shorter form content, from 10 to 30 seconds long, is more suitable. Leider singled out gas stations, gyms, and airlines as strong out-of-home markets for TV. He feels each of these are particularly promising markets because each offers quality dwell time. Airlines have a particularly long dwell time, typically averaging two and a half hours. The average dwell time on treadmills at health clubs is also long, typically running 35 minutes, he said. Ronan pointed out that “high dwell” locations are particularly important for TV companies because they allow those companies to showcase more of their content. CBS Television’s Ronan emphasized the importance of delivering relevant content in the out-of-home digital video market. For example, to appeal to the young, gamecentric audience their GameStop channel targets, CBS Outernet draws content from CNET.com, GameSpot.com, and music videos from VH1. FromMyers’ perspective, entertainment and sports are some of the most popular programs in the out-of-home market, particularly Hollywood and TV content with behind-the-scenes material and movie trailers. Restaurants could be another key market for digital out-of-home TV. TheBITE Network saw a great opportunity in the fast-food restaurant market because of the size of that market and the fact that people feel comfortable in those environments and are seeking entertainment, explained Myers. In fact, an Arbitron study conducted in restaurants indicated that consumers had high recall and a huge appetite for entertainment-related services and products, such as TV, DVD, and video games, reported Myers. He believes the out-of-home market is an ideal testing ground for regular cable and broadcast programs. He maintains that TV and cable companies could offer patrons in public places three-to-five minute samples of shows they might want to air in the home market as sneak previews. Currently, TheBITE Network is holding discussions with Hollywood studios regarding testing new TV shows and movies on the Network. Although digital out-of-home networks have different arrangements with TV programmers, they don’t typically pay for their content. Some of those networks offer programmers a share of ad revenue. Some digital out-of-home video networks are affording their venues more freedom and flexibility with content selection. For example, TheBITE Network offers “modularized content,” allowing restaurants in its network to pick and choose content that suits their needs, according to Myers. French was emphatic that simply repurposing regular TV programming in the out-of-home environment won’t work because it usually doesn’t offer added value. He stressed that TV programming in the out-of-home market must be customized to the venue; sports programming will naturally be relevant to arenas. In that regard, NBC Everywhere is delivering NBC sports programming in arenas via the Arena Media Network. Significant opportunities exist for original and new programming in the outof-home market. Original programming is central to CBS Outernet’s approach. For example, custom pieces for holiday baking were developed for CBS Outernet’s grocery network. Ronan noted that CBS keeps a dedicated stable of producers and editors specifically for the purpose of developing custom content for the out-ofhome environment. French reported that NBC has developed a considerable amount of original programming for the out-of-home market as well, delivering customized segments on all place-based platforms, though they are expensive to produce. One of the more ambitious original content efforts in the out-of-home market is the program Waiting for a Ride , which Endemol is developing. The 12-part series of creative shorts, which centers around five friends on a road trip in search of waves on the West Coast, is due to launch sometime this year on over 12,000 screens in young adult retail stores that are part of Access 360 Media’s retail network. V I D E O • A G E JU N E 2 0 0 9 (Continued from Cover) TV Takes A Walk 22 The BITE Network: leading the out-of-home charge
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