Outdoor advertising company JC Decaux has signed a five-year national bus shelter advertising contract with the National Transport Authority that will see it install and maintain about 500 new bus shelters.
The contract, which has an estimated value of €30 million, also includes the scope to install the first network of roadside digital advertising screens in Ireland.
The new bus shelters, which the NTA will purchase from JC Decaux during the life of the contract, are in addition to the advertising rights and maintenance related to some 1,843 existing bus shelters.
JC Decaux will take over these rights from January 1st next, in a 63-month deal agreed with the NTA in recent months. Clear Channel Ireland and Exterion Media are understood to have tendered for the contract.
Clear Channel is the incumbent rights holder to advertising panels at Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann bus shelters, but this was the first time the NTA put out to tender a single national contract.
Advertising sites
JC Decaux, which has its headquarters near Paris, said advertisers would be able to reach 80 per cent of the adult population through its advertising sites.
In Ireland, the company already operates the Dublin City Council public amenities contract which includes the Dublin Bikes scheme sponsored by Coca-Cola Zero. It also manages the advertising contract for the Luas and the largest portfolio of billboard sites in the State.
The company, which has 12,850 employees, operates more than 1.1 million advertising panels in more than 75 countries.
“Winning this contract for bus shelter advertising in Ireland is a significant development which will allow us the opportunity to introduce a national digital advertising network delivering valuable audiences to advertisers as well as enhancing their brand communications,” said Jean-François Decaux, co-chief executive.
