Given that there’s not usually a whole lot of eye candy at the gas station as, say, there is on the sidewalks of New York during a hot summer day, the launch of Gas Station TV, currently testing in Dallas, sounds like a really great idea. After all, for the 3-5 minutes it takes to pump your tank full of gas, there’s not a whole lot to do other than watch the numbers roll on the pump or marvel at just how far over the belt line the stomach of the guy in the car next to you hangs as he waddles back from the convenient mart with yet another bag of twinkies and a 64 once bottle of sugar and chemicals.
So, in relieving the maddeningly tedious practice of pumping your own gas, Gas Station TV has installed 100 TV’s on Murphy Oil pumps in Dallas and will expand to Houston and Atlanta in the fall. Walt Disney’s ABC will sell ads which will be shown with programming on the screens. This is what we call the acceptable tapping of a captive audience. Similar to the video screens in elevators, gas pump video and advertising likely won’t be seen as being intrusive such as pre-movie ads which are unsuccessful because people feel they’ve paid for the privilege of an ad-free experience. Add this to the list of good things attached to the growth of the third screen.
