City Gateway Media Sign Deal With Sky News
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
City Gateway have just signed a deal with Sky News whereby 30 seconds of Sky News content will be played out within each four minute content loop.
In addition it looks like City Gateway are offering brands the opportunity to sponsor the various business, sport and showbiz reports – each sponsor will receive a five second opening and closing credit (i.e. a TV style ‘bumper break’) plus a 20 second in screen banner for the duration of the report.
We are not sure what this will look like on City Gatewat’s giant portrait LED but it works with the Titan Transvision network so know reason to believe this also won’t be good.
Hope to be getting some pictures shortly. Here’s the press release in full…
Digital Outdoor Content Enhanced with Sky Deal
Sky News extends outdoor reach following City Gateway Media deal
City Gateway Media, the giant skyscraper format outdoor digital screen operator, has signed a deal with Sky to broadcast Sky News content on their Manchester Tower screen, which attracts a daily audience of 207,000.
Featuring national & international news as well as weather, business, sport and entertainment segments, Sky News will offer an up-to-the-minute news and information service to Manchester, keeping people in the know while they’re on the move.
Jointly marketed by City Gateway and Sky Media, the City Gateway screen will offer 30 seconds of Sky News content within each four minute content loop, running from 6am to 1am every day, 365 days a year. The Sky News content will include latest headlines, breaking news and the day’s top stories from around the world, as well as sponsored business, sports, showbiz news segments.
The news packages are regularly updated by Sky News and uploaded onto the City Gateway server instantaneously, so people watching the screens will be getting the latest news delivered to them in the heart of the city, as it happens.
Each brand sponsoring the business, sport and showbiz reports will receive five second opening and closing credits, plus a 20 second in screen banner for the duration of the report. This will offer a great way to align brands with Sky’s premium content on the hugely impressive City Gateway Media screen.
The independently audited average daily audience count for the City Gateway screen is 207,000, equating to 75.5 million per year.
City Gateway expands Sky News’ growing outdoor reach. In addition to the new screen in Manchester, Sky News already provides bespoke video feeds into screens at a number of mainline railway stations, including Manchester’s Piccadilly, as well as on a dedicated screen in London’s Piccadilly Circus.
Ian Bohn, Sales & Marketing Director at City Gateway comments “We believe this is the first roadside screen outside London’s Piccadilly to broadcast news content, something our research identified as being valued by the public. We see it as another piece in the jigsaw of providing advertisers with the flexibility of broadcast advertising in an outdoor location, helping to make our screen the first choice for Manchester and the North West.”
John Ryley, Head of Sky News, said: “We are delighted to be going into partnership with City Gateway and to bring Sky News to the centre of Manchester on such a huge scale. It is another great example of Sky News not just as a television news provider, but as a multi-screen, multi-media news provider. Sky News intends to continue to lead the way in breaking news – especially when it comes to new media.”
Graham Appleby, Director of Commercial Partnerships at Sky Media added, “We are delighted to extend our digital outdoor footprint using this high impact digital format. Harnessing Sky News’ dynamic and engaging content, we believe it will provide a sponsorship platform that’s attractive to a number of innovative brands.”
The City Gateway Media screen was recently included at number 6 in the Kinetic Top 10 Digital Outdoor Formats and last year appeared in a Guardian feature highlighting The UK’s Top 10 Outdoor sites (in both cases the only non-networked screen outside of London to make the list).
City Gateway has pioneered a new giant ‘skyscraper’ digital screen format. The same height as a 6-storey building, the 1:5 portrait screen ratio is in proportion with online skyscraper copy, which can be broadcast on the screen simply by repurposing artwork.
City Gateway recently announced a cost effective creative service, capable of producing animated ads from static source files and have already broadcast spots created for Tina Turner, Elton John and Pigeon Detectives.
The site formed the backdrop to a campaign for Mini, the first solus advertiser on screen, featuring a special build incorporating a life sized model of a Mini and giant magnet fixed to the Tower’s superstructure.
City Gateway is keen to promote the ultimate flexibility digital offers planners and buyers to plan and buy outdoor campaigns like broadcast. They have scheduled campaigns for alcohol brands keeping within the main licensing hours and AM and PM drive time spots for Manchester radio station Key 103.
Bohn added, “We are keen to offer advertisers the flexibility they’d expect from broadcast media, but in an outdoor environment. We plan to develop our ‘skyscraper’ screen concept across other key UK cities, where the format suits the trend to build skywards in the urban landscape.”
A diverse range of brands have used the screen including 3, Agent Provocateur, Bacardi, Channel 4, Greater Manchester Police, Key 103, Live Nation, M&S, Mini, Police Sunglasses, Sony, Vodafone.
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