Local trains to have LCD screens

Trains in Mumbai will now get sleek LCD screens in compartments.

OOH media company Hype Integracomm has entered into a private-public partnership with Western Railways in Mumbai to install LCD screens in 67 trains.

In the first phase, 72 screens have been installed. Around 4,000 screens will be installed in all, with six screens in each coach of the nine and 12 coach trains.

Hype Integracomm will earn revenue from the advertisements on the screens, and Western Railways will get a licence fee of Rs35 crore for the duration of the contract. The contract is valid for five years and will function on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis.

The content will be a mix of  entertainment, information and advertising for 18 hours a day in all the trains. The network of these screens is called Smile TV.

The screens will run contests, display SMS jokes, travel clips and also show non-commercial content such as safety messages and other public interest messages.

To start with, the screens will show recorded content. However, the company is developing solutions for real-time content as well. Apart from being an innovative advertising medium with great reach, these screens will also be a good medium for presenting socially relevant messages.

The TV screens will be seen by the large number of Western Railway (Churchgate to Dahanu Road) commuters, which translates to more than 2.6 million passengers per day - almost 43 per cent of Mumbai's total suburban rail traffic.

Hype Integracomm owns media assets in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune. The media assets are in the form of bus shelters, bus bays, green kiosks (tree guards), mobile toilets and public utilities. In Bengaluru, Hype is associated with the Nirmala chain of toilets, a project of the Infosys Foundation.