Broadcasters and Digital Signage: A New Business Model

Since the advent and mass deployment of flat-panel plasma and LCD monitors just a few years ago, the new application and technology called digital signage has developed great new legs. Estimates of these types of screens being used for the many forms of digital signage in the U.S. as of early 2008 are at almost 500,000. Industry researcher, The Carmel Group, estimates revenues of more than $2.5 billion by year-end 2010.

Yet, there is a good chance that the real stride in those legs will develop only if North America’s broadcasters join the small band of local operators that are today making digital signage a part of their overall business model. These would include broadcasters such as Capitol Broadcasting’s Jim Goodmon, whose company, Microspace, began focusing on digital signage in 1994, in the form of digital signage kiosks.

At the behest of the NAB, the author recently completed a 225+ page book about digital signage, which is part of the NAB/Focal Press Executive Briefings Series. It is set for publication and distribution in late Q1 2008. Entitled, “Digital Signage—Software, Networks, Advertising, and Displays: A Primer for Understanding the Business,” the study attempts to capture the business side of the software, hardware, operational and stakeholder aspects of this new business which, simply put, is such a logical fit for local broadcasters because so much of what digital signage is and does is already a part of what local broadcasters do. It’s a natural transition.

Notes Goodmon, in a quote from the book, “As computers get more advanced, getting into the digital signage business is going to get easier and easier. It’s a great way to diversify. We already have a lot of the content, and we’re familiar with the basic equipment and the key players – ad agencies and advertisers – it just makes a lot of sense to work in digital signage.” Thus, because local broadcasters and multichannel operators typically already have local production, facilities, and teams in place, their ready ability to grow that into a viable local digital signage business is evident.
Chapters as well as many charts and photos in the book capture the where, how, when and who of a business that is finding its way today into malls, kiosks, information displays, at retail (i.e., in supermarkets, department and drug stores, as well as in gas stations and convenience stores), on streets and freeways (i.e., billboards), at trade shows, in cinemas and theatres, in hotel and motel lobbies, in vehicles (such as buses, taxis and airplanes), in travel centers (i.e., customer terminals, airports, subways and train stations), and in elevators (and waiting areas in front of elevators), in stadiums and arenas, in public buildings and places (e.g., in hospitals, at DMV’s, in public authorities and municipal crossroads), in houses of worship, in amusement parks, in gambling and gaming centers, in restaurants, in banks, in health facilities (e.g., in salons, health spas, doctors’, veterinarians’, and dentists’ offices), in factories and manufacturing and, in short, in any place selling digital screens, which should be using digital signage (and using inventory on the floor in the form of digital signage).


Indicative of prospects for broadcasters and related operators is the following quote from chapter 2 of the book: “For broadcasters, multichannel operators, and related industry vendors, digital signage offers an attractive prospect, because it offers an answer and an alternative to the business they are losing to the depletion of traditional advertising assets.” The book can be accessed at Target.com

Jimmy Schaeffler is the chairman and chief service officer of The Carmel Group, a 12-year-old Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif.-based consultancy, publisher and conference organizer that focuses on the global multichannel industry. He can be reached at and 831-643 2222.