Ten Firms To Contest Underground Ad Contract

The battle for London Underground’s £1.2 billion advertising contract is between ten key players, reports this morning suggest, with the incumbent Viacom Outdoor going head to head with rival outdoor advertising heavyweights Clear Channel and JC Decaux.

Others reportedly bidding for the contract include SMG’s Primesight, Spanish advertising group, Cemusa, KBH Transport Media, Media Initiatives Group, Stroer Out of Home Media, Insight Outdoor and T4 Media.

The contract, believed to be the largest of its kind, will run for ten years, giving the winning company the rights to sell advertising space across London Underground’s network of over 250 stations. The deal also includes advertising rights on the Docklands Light Railway and Victoria coach station.

The 10 year contract concludes in January 2006, with attention expected by numerous parties eager to manage the network’s 33,000 station billboards and 80,000 in-carriage poster sites. Speaking to NewsLine last month, Julie France, managing director of Clear Channel-owned Adshel was guarded when asked whether Clear Channel would bid for the contract. She said: “We will make a decision as and when the tender comes out, and if we feel it is appropriate for our business then we will go for it, but it’s impossible to say before we know what we’re bidding for.”

The tender process is expected to be a long one, with London Underground’s media manager, Adi Frost, explaining: “The bidding won’t conclude until at best Autumn this year. This is a complex project and it will take time to decide how we might best provide for the advertisers.”

Meanwhile, current contract holder, Viacom Outdoor, has continued to invest in the Tube, announcing plans to introduce digital escalator posters on the network earlier this week. The move, which represents a true media first, enables advertisers to run dynamic and engaging campaigns with many features simply unavailable using current advertising techniques (see Viacom To Install Digital Posters On Tube).

The London Underground network has become a hotbed of activity for media owners recently, with London mayor, Ken Livingstone, opening the bidding for the creation of an afternoon freesheet in the capital earlier this month. The move will end the exclusive contract held by Associated Newspapers for sole distribution of the Metro newspaper within London Underground stations and is expected to attract a flurry of interest from publishers, eager to reach the tube network’s 19 million passengers each year (see Livingstone Opens Bidding For London’s Afternoon Freesheet).

Transport for London: 020 7941 4500 www.tfl.gov.uk

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