Outfront Starts Live Trial Of Planned 37,000 Screen NYC MTA Rollout

February 27, 2019 by Dave Haynes

Via NY Daily News

Outfront Media has started testing on what will eventually be a rollout of a reported 37,000 new digital signage screens across the NYC subway and commuter rail systems.

The digital OOH media screens are getting a test run on subway cars on the No. 7 line, the NY Daily News reports, ahead of a full rollout that should start this fall. Another 16,000 new screens will go into subway and commuter rail stations.

“We have in effect lots and lots of New Yorkers whose eyeballs we can sell to advertisers,” MTA construction chief Janno Lieber said Monday at a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) board meeting, reports the News. “That is going to increase our value over time.”

“Already, 1,200 screens have been installed in subway and commuter rail stations after initial tests on the L line’s Metropolitan Ave.- Lorimer St. station.

Fifty subway stations got the screens last year, and 100 more will get them this year. Fifteen Long Island Rail Road stops have new digital screens, and they’re also being installed in several Metro-North stations, including in White Plains.”

The MTA has a long-term, guaranteed revenue contract with Outfront, with the MTA getting about 20% of the time on the screens.

It looks, from social media posts retweeted by the MTA, that the in-car screens are those stretchy wide and short LCDs I have sometimes seen referred to as bar-type screens.

This is a huge network, and also massively challenging. Putting screens in rolling stock like subway cars – especially the aging MTA system – in incredibly hard in operating terms. Nothing but bumps, jolts and a lot of airborne gunk.

The MTA suggests this will be the largest DOOH network, when built out, on the planet. Not sure about that, but getting information on the largest networks out there is tough work, and not a puzzle I’ve managed to solve.

Not sure who works with Outfront – in terms of screens, players and software – but this is a big, big project.

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