News

Van Wagner acquires Viacom New York City tele-kiosk ad business

January 1, 2003

NEW YORK -- Van Wagner Communications announced it acquired the New York City telephone kiosk advertising business of Viacom Outdoor Group Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B) on Dec. 31.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Under the agreement, Van Wagner, already an advertising marketer on some 1,000 kiosks in Manhattan, will add approximately 1,600 more locations in the city, as well as 700 other locations throughout the state.

"We are very excited about this deal with Viacom as Van Wagner has now achieved 'critical mass' with this expansion into this growing segment of the advertising business," Van Wagner chief executive officer Richard Schaps said in a release. "Our goal is to provide premiere advertising venues to advertisers with placements that will be broadly accepted ... ."

According to the release, Van Wagner is developing plans with Verizon, which has telephones at most of these locations, to refurbish, upgrade and illuminate their existing kiosks.

New York City receives revenues from the telephone operators who own the kiosks and from advertising on the machines. Public service announcements are also placed on kiosks for approved campaigns.