Monday, January 21st, 2008 ::: TTC

In September 2005, the Toronto Public Space Committee had one of its greatest victories when the TTC rejected Onestop Media’s video ads inside subway cars. That vote was very close, 4-3, and the TTC did approved video screens on subway platforms. Meanwhile, the issue of video screens inside cars was to be considered again in the near future by TTC commissioners for the system’s new subway cars.

We kept on hearing from advertising industry people that Onestop just couldn’t get along with CBS Outdoor, which owns a monopoly on third party advertising on the TTC. Onestop executives even resorted to denigrating CBS’s advertising: “When was the last time a transit wrap of a streetcar with a liquor ad provided information on transit delays, the Leafs score or the weather?” said Onestop’s Ian Gadsby. Needless to say, these comments none too pleased CBS and further damaged the already poisonous relationship between the two ostensible partners.

It all comes down to the length of CBS’ contract with the TTC. The CBS contract runs from January 1, 2005 to the end of 2011. That’s four years away. The capital expenditures associated with installing video screens inside subway cars just doin’t make sense if you may lose the contract in four years and have to pull your screens. That’s why, when the TPSC killed video screens in 2005, the killed them off for good, at least until 2011.

So after the defeat in 2005, CBS tried again. On April 18, 2006, CBS Outdoor submitted a new proposal to the TTC. It would call for the TTC to enter into a separate contract with OneStop, outside the bounds of the 2011 CBS contract. This would allow the TTC to have a contract with OneStop that extends beyond 2011. Here’s Nick Arakgi’s letter to the TTC, the key sentences (if you can get over Nick’s misuse of it’s) being the first paragraph of the second page:

The TTC responded by saying that Viacom must bring the proposal itself or assign rights under the current contract to OneStop:

CBS then submitted a proposal to the TTC which would allow the OneStop screens under the current contract on the condition that the current contract was extended past 2011 without a competitive RFP. That proposal was heard by the TTC in an in-camera session on June 13, 2007. TTC commissioners rejected contract extension:

We missed this agenda item because this TTC web page does not provide links to the agendas of in-camera meetings if the page is viewed in Internet Explorer. The links appear if the page is viewed in Firefox. So the first time we heard that the TTC rejected video ads in subway cars was when Chairman Giambrone was interviewed by Torontoist in August, 2007.

The bottom line is that when the TPSC defeated the screens in 2005, they destroyed the economics of video screens under the current 2011 contract. So, let’s hear it for the TPSC’s Dave Meslin who lead the charge against the screens, and for the four TTC commissioners who voted against the screens in 2005: Joe Mihevc, Olivia Chow, Adam Giambrone and Howard Moscoe. In anticipation of 2011, public space activists must ensure that the new RFP for advertising on the TTC excludes any video, station domination or vehicle-wrap aspects.