Coming to a Gas Pump Near You

Thought you were just wasting money at the pump every time you filled the tank? "Consumers spend, on average, four and a half minutes at the gas pump with nothing to do," says David Leider, CEO of Gas Station TV (GSTV). Leider’s one-year-old company, and several others like it, want to fill that gap with pump-based displays featuring "relevant" three-minute samplings of national news, sports and entertainment, local weather and traffic, and of course, targeted advertising. PumpMedia, VST Media and PumpTop TV, from Westinghouse Digital and Adtek Media, are other early entrants into this emerging market.

Based in Detroit, GSTV has already inked deals with ABC Television Network and ESPN. As you might expect from a company born near the heart of the auto industry, some of the first GSTV advertisers were Dodge, Jeep, Chevrolet and Progressive Insurance.

GSTV’s systems feature vandal-proof 20-inch LCD screens that are controlled by Scala InfoChannel and, in increasing numbers, Avocent’s Emerge MPX 1000 HD Multipoint Extender. By the end of the year, the company plans to have some 6,000 screens in operation at stations in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia.

That kind of accelerated growth doesn’t worry its competitors, particularly LCD manufacturing giant Westinghouse Digital Electronics, the consumer display company making inroads into the pro market. With partner Adtek Media, Westinghouse Digital recently launched PumpTop TV, which it claims will be the largest "out-of-home" media network in the U.S. and reach upwards of about 100 million drivers each month.

The barrage of ads may not be welcomed by all drivers at the pump, but more screens in more places is certainly good news for smaller content developers creating localized content.