Up to 50 locations across the UK could soon see screens showing TV images with advertising and community messages, following a pilot scheme at three sites in Coventry.
The 1.8 by 1.4m StreetTV screens show community messages chosen by the local authority and paid for by 10 minutes of commercial advertising an hour. Locations by trafficked highways will only show static images which change slowly, which promoter Street Broadcast claims complies with regulations but which has, nevertheless, prompted concerns among safety groups.
‘TV screens are banned from where drivers can see them because of the distraction they provide,’ said a Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents spokeswoman. ‘We’d have concerns if these screens demanded drivers’ attention for any length of time.’
But Street Broadcast development director, Keith Pullum, said categorically that, where the screens were at the roadside, they would only show static images or images which faded slowly into one another. It was possible to have screens with one side facing the road, which delivered only such images, and the other facing pedestrians, showing the television images.
‘There won’t be any moving images to distract drivers,’ he said. ‘But in pedestrian areas, we’ll go for the full moving image.’
He claimed the screens offered big potential for councils or the police to get information on developments such as traffic or parking across quickly. ‘We can have a picture and a phone number around a whole community in 15 minutes,’ he said.
Equally interesting to local authorities might be the income each screen generates – around £6-7,000 each annually. Initially, the company is targeting shopping centres and local authorities in London and the big cities, and the first screens will be going up in Liverpool on 2 September.
The screens can either be at ground level or post mounted, around 2.5m high. They can incorporate a directional sound system that is only audible at particular close-up locations and can enable those with Bluetooth-enabled telephones to interrogate the screens to obtain some local information.
‘It will be interesting to see how councils use it,’ said Pullum.