Astral takes control of all digital ads at Montréal-Trudeau International Airport

Astral Out-of-Home, a subsidiary of Astral Media Inc., has announced that it expanded its advertising network at the Montréal-Trudeau International Airport with the addition of 80 new AeroVertical digital faces to the hundred digital faces already in place. I stress the new because...well, they aren't exactly new. The AeroVertical network is Astral's takeover of the existing 40-inch vertical panels located throughout the airport's domestic terminal. It seems that either Bell and Clear Channel (the previous managers of those screens) have either given up on the airport or the airport decided to consolidate the media assets in their building.

The existing media assets run by Astral, AeroTV & PasseportMedia, are quite different than the new AeroVertical network. The AeroVertical network is advertising-only with a 90-second broadcast loop shared by a maximum of six advertisers with 15-second spots. Its 40-inch vertical screens are mainly located throughout the airport's domestic terminal.  In contrast, the AeroTV flat-screen television network - located in the flight departure area - features programming focused on entertainment and leisure; and the PasseportMedia screens - located in the flight arrival area - broadcast rich visual content, supported by text or graphics (ed. I'm not sure what that means either but I think I remember seeing screens at the airport with LED tickers).

The change does make more sense in the perspective of the media buyer. You no longer need to think which screens are which and owned by who, so media buys become easier. That said, I've heard that business in the airport, such as restaurants, have been denied the freedom of contracting their own firms to install non-advertising digital signage screens.