Transit TV Programming Returning to Metro Buses

Regular riders of public transportation are quick to notice changes on the trains and buses they take during their daily commutes. So it was two weeks ago I noticed that the TV monitors on the Orange Line metroliners were showing programming again following what had been at least five months of having been dark. The return of Transit Television to all Metro buses equipped with the monitors (some 2,000 by the transit agency’s count) came about when Sun Valley transit services and software firm Tezo Systems bought the assets of Transit Television after that company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in February. The delay in getting short-form programming and advertising back onto the buses was due to the agreement between Metro and Transit Television not being transferrable to Tezo Systems. While an agreement is being worked out between the agency and Tezo, Metro asked that the programming start up again to benefit the riders, said Warren Morse, deputy executive officer of communications for Metro. Under the old agreement between Metro and Transit Television, the agency received a minimum of $100,000 in revenues generated by the advertising. If the gross sales went over a certain amount then the agency received additional money. “We would do something similar with the new owners but we are not there yet,” Morse said. With Tezo owning the monitors and other equipment and handling buying the ads and assembling the programming, Transit Television becames a local company. Prior to the bankruptcy the advertising firm was based in Florida and been a subsidiary of a Canadian media company. Under that previous ownership Transit Television had a national reach, serving not just Los Angeles but also Chicago, Milwaukee, Atlanta and Orlando. Riders aboard Metro buses were served with short KNBC news and weather broadcasts, and television magazine show-type segments on travel, food and entertainment. There were also segments aimed at Hispanic riders. The resuscitated programming is not nearly as extensive as of yet. The KNBC news segment has been replaced with a broadcast featuring a Tezo employee reading copy from the Associated Press. The monitors engage riders with trivia questions on a variety of topics. Tezo will bring back much of the content previously aired by Transit Television and upgrade it with original programming to give a more Los Angeles feel. Once the company is satisfied that it has reached its goals in the local market it will then return to the other cities served by Transit Television. Metro’s Morse said that as Tezo picks up the pieces the company may try to do things differently. Metro would like to add new features to the programming, such as providing real-time information about emergencies or other urgent matters. Riders should soon see information telling them how to protect themselves from the flu and other contagious diseases, Morse said. Tunnel Ads Back in May 2008, Metro announced with great fanfare a pilot project with Sidetrack Technologies Inc. to install and maintain a digital display for advertising purposes in the northbound tunnel of the Red Line subway between the Hollywood/Highland and Universal Studios stations. Less than a year later that display has gone dark as the recession dried up financing sources needed by Sidetrack, a digital technology company based north of the U.S.-Canada border in Winnipeg. For a brief time, Sidetrack brought in ads from Target and from some of the major Hollywood studios with a new film to promote. When no ads could be sold, the display showed a Metro safety message. Unlike the Transit Television monitors that Metro saw as an information source first and a revenue generator second, the tunnel display was about the money the agency could bring in. The two-year pilot project was estimated to bring in $240,000 for Metro. The display, however, could come to life again now that Basset Media Group Corp. (based in Toronto) has made a deal to acquire from Sidetrack certain of its assets related to digital displays in Los Angeles, San Francisco and London, and cities in Mexico and South America. The deal is expected to close by the end of September. Included in the sale are the agreements to continue operating in the cities where Sidetrack had installed its displays. “We’d be delighted if it came back on line,” Morse said. Crash Anniversary Metrolink marked the first anniversary of the deadly Chatsworth commuter train crash with the unveiling of a plaque to honor the memories of the victims of that incident and others involving the rail agency’s trains. The plaque in the east portal at Union Station shows a train track and a tree-lined bend with the caption “Unfinished Journeys.” On Sept. 12, 2008, a Metrolink train collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train killing 25 passengers and injuring 135 more. Investigations later determined the engineer had sent a text message moments before the collision. Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected] . He hopes Metro does a better job in keeping the volume down on the Orange Line TV monitors.