NBC Owned Stations Gas Up With Verifone

VeriFone Systems Inc. and NBC Owned Television Stations, a division of NBCUniversal, today announced a long-term strategic and advertising sales agreement. This new partnership, effective Jan. 1, 2012, will deliver audiences across the country access to NBCUniversal’s news, information and entertainment programming in more than 12,000 taxi cabs as well as at thousands of gas stations and other digital out-of-home platforms in the future. The agreement will also provide interactive advertising opportunities through e-commerce, couponing and microsites.

“NBCUniversal is the perfect strategic fit for us as we extend our payment-enabled media platform beyond TaxiTV into other verticals, including our existing client base of over 60,000 gas stations and more than one million retail installations,” said Bud Waller, vice chairman of VeriFone. “We have worked with the NBC-owned stations for the last two years and believe their superior sales performance and innovative programming of new consumer experiences will benefit advertisers and consumers.”

“With VeriFone, we have chosen to partner with the industry leader to deliver best-in-class content and our strong sales capabilities to one of the nation’s largest collection of taxis and gas stations,” said Greg Scholl, president of local integrated media for NBC Owned Television Stations. “We are excited about future growth prospects as VeriFone continues to innovate its products and push into new digital out-of-home sectors.”

At launch, the collaboration will cover taxis in nine markets, including New York, Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Miami, and some gas stations, with additional expansion planned. In New York, riders will be able to watch a vast array of NBCUniversal programming on high-resolution screens, including regularly refreshed local news and weather updates from WNBC New York and content from NBC Sports Group, NBC News, NBC’s primetime and late night offerings as well as several of its cable networks and Universal Pictures.

An interactive ticker will deliver breaking news updates and headlines throughout the day, enabling riders to choose to access more information right from the interactive television screen. In the future, consumers will be able to download content directly to their smartphones.

With VeriFone’s recent upgrade to its entire fleet of 6,800 NFC-enabled New York taxis, NBC Owned Stations will be able to offer advertisers the ability for riders to make purchases directly from the taxi screen, simply by swiping their credit card through the system or tapping NFC mobile phones on the system already in place for fare payments.

Advertisers will also have the ability to integrate both mobile and social features into their campaigns, track user engagement and enable riders to select from a range of coupons and print them out on new, wider receipts for future redemption. Additionally, they will be able to select the specific daypart or geography they are interested in targeting. Other future enhancements are planned.