Ted Turner Cited for ‘Place-Based’ Media Efforts

In the early 1990s, Turner Broadcasting System, was in the forefront of place-based media. It started networks, broadcasting programming and commercials, that included the Checkout Channel, in supermarkets; CNN Accent Health, in doctors’ offices; CNN Airport Network; CNN College Television Network, now the MTVU unit of Viacom; and McDTV, inside McDonald’s restaurants.

At the time, the idea of encouraging consumers to watch TV in locations where television was not usually watched was somewhat controversial, particularly because of the introduction of sponsored programs in classrooms by Whittle Communications under the Channel One banner. Critics complained that the screens commercialized the environments in which they were installed. Years later, the screens are accepted, or at least tolerated, as critics have moved on to complaining about other forms of advertising they consider more obtrusive and intrusive. Ted Turner’s efforts were celebrated by the Digital Place-Based Advertising Association which identified Turner an industry visionary.