Streetbroadcast joins race to be first digital network

The company is pitching itself against Viacom Outdoor, which is

digitising the London Underground over the next 18 months, and JCDecaux,
which is installing digital units in airports.

Lee Arthur, chief executive and founder of Streetbroadcast, boasted: "We
will get to 1,000 sites nationally before anyone else."

Streetbroadcast, whose investors include private equity firm Apax
Partners, has been trialling the technology in Coventry for the past six
months. Within 12 months, it will be rolled out to 1,000 sites around
the UK, reaching Liverpool, Leeds, Dundee, Portsmouth and a handful of
outer London boroughs.

The company has plumped for cylindrical, rather than flat, advertising
spaces.

The LED screens supported on columns are designed to show either static
or moving images, which are fed to the units from a central server,
allowing almost instant campaigns.

As well as ads, they will carry local news, weather and community
messages posted by the local council or police force. Campaigns can be
run at specific times of the day and week, rather than the standard
two-week block used to sell most poster sites.

Arthur added: "It has huge potential, it brings the power of television
and the internet together outdoor. If the pilot is successful, we will
start replacing a lot of our paper and paste panels with digital
units."

Streetbroadcast's hoardings are located in the car parks of shopping
centres and retail parks, and on lampposts, via contracts with
individual local authorities.

Although the company has units in retail parks in London, Manchester and
Birmingham, it has no street furniture contracts in the UK's major city
centres.