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ALL PRESS

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August 25, 2010

ESPN, Gas Station TV Expand Pact
August 11, 2010

ESPN and Gas Station TV Extend Agreement, Offer Enhanced Content Experience for Advertisers
August 11, 2010

Team Universal McCann Wins Gas Station TV's Inaugural Beer Pong Invitational Tournament
July 29, 2010

Gas Station TV Hits Record 27 Million Monthly Nielsen-Verified Fueling Impressions
July 22, 2010

Gas Station TV goes on the air
July 18, 2010

Birmingham Company Programs Gas Pump TVs Across America
July 16, 2010

Media Insights Q&A With David Leider
July 7, 2010

Ward's Automotive News Story
June 29, 2010

I Don't Want My GSTV

BRIAN M. CARNEY
Wall Street Journal
September 26, 2008

Pumping gas has been a painful experience for everyone recently, but the oil
companies have now come up with a new form of torment. In addition to
shelling out more than $60 for a tank of gas, we now have to endure Gas
Station TV -- or "GSTV" for short.

I do not know when GSTV first intruded itself into American life, but I made
its acquaintance on a recent evening returning home from New York City. As
the pump ticked inexorably through $20, $30, $40, $50, I became conscious of
a screen on top of the pump displaying advertisements in full color, with
sound. The particular commercial I saw was, sadistically enough, for some
car that supposedly gets such good mileage that gas pumps engage in various
acts of sabotage when these fuel-sippers pull into the station. "Gas pumps
hate us" is the tag line.

"Well, I hate gas pumps," I thought as I filled the capacious tank of my
seven-seat, V-6-sporting, low-mileage minivan. "But I hate watching TV at
the gas station more." Oil companies, take note: If you are worried about
your public image, do not run GSTV ads that are designed to call attention
to how expensive it has become to visit your place of business.

But it's not the content of the ad that got me so much as the fact that
there was a TV there at all. I should disclose here that I do not own a
television set. I realize that this makes me a suspicious person in the eyes
of many. But I'm not one of those types who has some kind of ideological
objection to the idiot box -- I mean, TV. I still watch network shows. It's
just that these days, I download their episodes -- as well as Hollywood
movies -- on the Web or watch them on DVD. The last time I owned a
television, three of the four prime-time serials I found compelling enough
to tune in to were canceled before the season was out. I make no judgment
about whether this was a sign that my taste was too elevated or simply
mistaken, but it was disheartening either way. Far better to pay for exactly
what I want to watch exactly when I want to watch it than to shell out for
cable. And far easier on the emotions to watch an entire season on DVD than
to get sucked into a show only to have a network yank it off the air. "The
Black Donnellys" deserved better.

But at the same time that the networks have taken away TV that I want to
watch, they are force-feeding me TV I didn't ask for. GSTV is only the
latest example. Those little screens in the elevators are another. The
"Captivate Network," now found in many office buildings, is anything but
captivating -- except in the sense that, in that elevator, we are its
captives. This is the genius of the concept, of course, repeated in GSTV.
While we stand there, waiting for the elevator door to open or for the gas
pump to stop eating up our savings, we have nothing better to do than to
stare blankly at whatever visual stimulus is placed before our eyes.
Everyone watches that little screen in the elevator dole out celebrity
gossip and news in 15-word snippets. We can't help it, unless we're checking
our BlackBerrys instead.

As others have observed, our society has become plugged in -- to a degree
previously unimaginable. If it is not the computer at work or at home, it is
the cellphone or the BlackBerry. And should those fail us or be momentarily
unavailable, we are now being subject to broadcasts, unwillingly, as we
stand at the gas pump. Some supermarkets have installed TVs in checkout
lines. Doctors offices keep them in waiting rooms, and the machines are
ubiquitous in airports.

The good news is that there are signs of a backlash against this creeping
screenification of our lives: In 2003 New York City tried to put TVs in taxi
cabs, only to pull the plug when riders rebelled. But the pro-TV forces are
tenacious. Within a few years, the screens were back -- this time to stay.
The credit-card machines now found in taxis across the city are all equipped
with screens that cannot be turned off. At most, they can be switched to a
static, and silent, advertisement.

Even those who are regular TV watchers, I suspect, understand that it is one
thing to sit down and turn the set on, but another to have it put in front
of your eyes without any opportunity to refuse, much less change the
channel. In between GSTV's ads -- which are the network's raison d'etre --
the infernal device atop the pump shows us "news" items, most of which, for
some reason, are transportation-themed as well. Even the sports report on
the night I stood watching covered Nascar.

Before allowing me to complete my transaction, the pump TV asked me whether
I was hungry and exhorted me to go inside to check out the snacks in the
minimart. I wasn't, but it did make me wonder -- do they sell hammers in
there? There's a TV I'd like to smash.
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