VeriFone Systems Inc. is ready to go live with its first content partner for a system that plays videos on gas-station payment terminal screens: NBCUniversal Inc., the terminal vendor announced Dec. 19.
VeriFone launched Paymedia for its Secure PumpPay terminals as an add-on for gas stations in May (
VeriFone likens the NBC deal for gas stations to its practice of presenting media in taxicabs.
"The pump experience has a lot of very similar characteristics to the taxi experience," says Chris Polos, VeriFone’s vice president in charge of global media sales. "You are captive, and it's accountable. It's only running when somebody is engaging in a transaction."
As part of its deal with NBC, VeriFone, of San Jose, Calif., is ending its relationship with Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, which has provided content for VeriFone terminals since 2007.
NBC, which is owned by Comcast Corp. and General Electric Co., is ending its relationship with other companies that provide programming to gas stations, Polos says.
VeriFone would not disclose the number of gas station pumps that will receive NBC content through this deal.
VeriFone has a presence at about 65,000 gasoline retailers, which have about 10 screens at each station, says Polos. He would not say specifically how many of these screens will be getting access to NBC content.
About 12,000 taxicabs also will be receiving the new content as part of this deal, he says.
Advertisers increasingly are interested in placing their brands at the pump, says Polos.
"It's an easy conversation for us to have," he says. "The question [advertisers ask] isn't: 'Tell us about it?' The question is: 'How many have you installed so far?' "
VeriFone also is testing a function that would enable users to buy lottery tickets while filling up.
In the new fiscal year, which began at the end of October, VeriFone expects to equip between 10,000 and 15,000 pumps with Secure PumpPay, the company's chief executive, Douglas G. Bergeron, said during an earnings call with analysts Dec. 15.
