Broadcasters’ battle for viewers goes beyond gas pumpsmp1

The battle of the broadcasters is heating up. As media companies vie for viewers at fuel islands, at least one company said it is extending its reach in-store.

Gas Station TV, which claims it is the largest provider of television at the pump, said it is working to broaden its reach to the inside of convenience stores: its “Convenience Store Network” will enable marketers to influence consumers in-store, the company said.

Gas Station TV provides news and entertainment content from CBS, sports from ESPN, and local weather. The content can be specifically tailored to geography and time of day, the company said.

GSTV said it is currently on over 5,000 screens in 375 U.S. cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Detroit, Tampa, San Diego, Raleigh, Indianapolis, Miami and Bentonville at select ARCO, ARCO am/pm, BP, Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, Citgo, Exxon-Mobil, Murphy USA, Shell, Speedway, Valero, Sunoco stations.

Meanwhile, Spacenet Inc. and Fuelcast Media Network, Inc. announced Feb. 25 that they will work together to broadcast information and entertainment programming to gas stations.

Fuelcast said its network is deployed at over 500 gas stations in North America, comprising over 5,300 screens reaching 10.2 million consumers every month. Fuelcast uses Spacenet’s satellite services to support its network.

Spacenet Inc., based in McLean, Va., is a provider of advanced satellite networking services for enterprise and government. Spacenet is a wholly owned subsidiary of Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd.

Fuelcast said it is upgrading its satellite network to Spacenet’s advanced platform, SkyEdge, designed for faster speeds and improved functionality. The companies said the upgrade will provide Fuelcast’s network with more frequent and faster programming/advertising updates.

Fuelcast Chief Executive Officer John McLean said, “Choosing a satellite infrastructure provides us with advantages over terrestrial alternatives since it is a consistent, reliable and scalable solution that provides efficient multicast capabilities to support our nationwide media network. We have seen tremendous benefits for our customers, including a robust and stable network environment.”