FTV, the holding company of Forecourt Television Limited is to raise additional funding of around £10m for ongoing development, primarily the installation of its television advertising systems in UK petrol station forecourts, by applying for its shares to be admitted to trading on AIM from this Wednesday.
Forecourt Television offers advertisers the opportunity to buy spots which appear on large television screens on petrol station forecourts, with speakers next to each pump to relay the sound. In this way the company hopes to tap into a ‘captive audience’ of motorists filling their fuel tanks, which should cover a wide demographic profile, including young affluent men who can be hard to target with other advertising media, yet who may be heavy users of petrol stations.
Advertisements, which can be material already created for conventional television advertising, are shown in a continuous loop during operating hours, having been transmitted to the petrol stations via satellite link. Advertisers generally purchase spots on a monthly basis and pay for the number of spots within the repeating sequence they wish to use. They can also choose to have their material shown according to certain conditions such as the time of day or the weather. At the moment, with coverage limited to the London and South East England areas, advertisers are using the medium on a regional basis according to ITV regions.
There are already 209 petrol stations within the London and South East area with operational Forecourt Television. It is hoped that this figure will be increased to around 300 by the end of the year. Exclusive five year contracts signed with TotalFinaElf and Texaco open up the possibility of around 1,400 sites – Forecourt Television’s strategy is to build a network of sites to achieve national coverage. To this end around 1,000 sites are planned by the end of June 2002, building on the London/South East roll-out via the ITV regions, with Granada next in line.
Products already advertised have not been confined to motoring products, although Claims Direct and Michelin Tyres have been among the first to take advantage of the new technology. Other advertisers include Mars, Exchange & Mart, CGU and Your Move.
Forecourt Television: 020 7734 7542
