Article

GSTV expects $50 million deal to triple its DOOH footprint

GSTV programming will be featured on screens integrated into the new fuel dispensers from Wayne.

September 20, 2011 by Christopher Hall — writer, self

Gas Station TV already claims to be "the largest national away-from-home television network at the pump," and a new deal valued at approximately $50 million with GE Energy company Wayne should allow it to deliver even more viewers than any of the major network television shows, according to its CEO.

GSTV today announced an exclusive, long-term agreement with Wayne, a global provider of fuel dispensers and technologies, that will see Wayne make a "substantial" investment with GSTV to deploy their new co-developed media platform, inOvationTV, at gas stations throughout the country.

The inOvationTV platform from Wayne and GSTV will be made available free of charge to qualified stations and is installed either as a retrofit to stations already installed with Wayne's Ovation-brand fuel dispensers, or available to retailers installing new Ovation dispensers from the factory. The platform is essentially a fuel pump with a 10-inch screen integrated into the center of the dispenser.

And GSTV CEO David Leider isn't being shy when it comes to crowing about what the new deal means, saying in the announcement that "the new stations installed from this relationship will quickly increase our ... viewership and market penetration to more than 70 million monthly at-the-pump consumers, placing us at the very top of Nielsen's weekly television rankings."

That would nearly triple its current 27 million monthly viewers, according to the company.

"This is frankly the largest deal ever in the digital-OOH advertising space in terms of a network expansion," Leider said in a follow-up email. "With this investment to significantly and quickly expand the GSTV network, GSTV is larger than either of the major cinema advertising players and will deliver TV ratings higher than any of the major network shows."

Fuel retailers outfitted with inOvationTV will be able to display to their customers GSTV's exclusive content, including sports from ESPN, business and personal finance news from Bloomberg TV, local weather from AccuWeather and GSTV's original social media television show, "Your Neighborhood."

And the integration of the 10-inch screens, just below eye level for most adults and where customers also will make their fuel preference selections, rather than as a clunky add-on, is also a huge plus, Leider said in his email:

"We believe direct integration into the fuel dispenser – integrated into the screen where consumers are executing their payment processing – has numerous advantages. For instance, we expect GSTV's already high engagement numbers to grow even higher."

Fuel retailers also will receive a number of additional benefits through the program, according to the announcement, such as an upgraded payment processing experience via Wayne's iX technology platform, and retail-driven promotional announcements produced by GSTV.

The fully-funded program includes Wayne's media equipment; system installation; six years of maintenance, technical support and GSTV's world-class content; programming; retailer marketing; production and programming services and solutions, according to the companies.

"Our relationship with GSTV represents another step forward in our global strategy to provide fuel retailers worldwide with leading-edge products and technologies that allow them to provide an enhanced experience to their customers," said Neil Thomas, global president of Wayne, in the announcement. "GSTV clearly has emerged as a leading provider of media at the pump in the U.S. Along with Wayne's strength as a world-leading supplier of fueling systems, we will be able to serve more fuel retailers in more locations with an exciting new offering."

For more articles on digital out-of-home advertising, visit our DOOH Advertising research center.