Astral Out-of-Home, a division of Astral Media Inc. (TSX: ACM.A ACM.B) and one of Canada’s leading out-of-home advertising companies, announced today the addition of four more digital faces in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and three more digital faces in the Montreal region, bringing the total number of digital faces to 39 across its entire network in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

In GTA, the first two digital faces will be located at the East Mall, just East of Highway 427 on the Gardiner Expressway. These faces will be clearly visible to daily commuters heading to and from the western suburbs and traffic to and from Pearson International Airport. The other two digital faces are located in the heart of downtown Mississauga, in the newly renovated Celebration Square and only a short distance away from Square One Shopping Centre.

In the Montreal region – in addition to the recently deployed digital face on highway 15 in Laval, close to the Carrefour Laval and Centre Laval shopping centres –two new faces will be deployed alongside the newly built A25 Bridge, an entirely electronic toll bridge which is set to open in May and links Montreal to Laval and other North Shore municipalities. These two new faces will also permit the A25 Management Consortium to display messages of public interest to the users of the A25 Bridge.

“Astral’s Digital Network™ offers flexible, instant displays that allow advertisers to express their creativity by modifying or changing concepts at will and achieve even greater performance through innovative targeted campaigns,” said Luc Sabbatini, President, Astral Out-of-Home. “With more faces in our network which spans the country’s biggest markets, Astral Out-of-Home is at the forefront of change in the industry with the first and only national outdoor digital network.”

The spectacular digital signs feature LED (light-emitting diode) lighting, an advanced display technology, capable of reproducing millions of colours in high resolution, ensuring outstanding readability, day or night. The digital boards display six static advertising messages rotating in 10 second intervals. The Digital Network is programmed on-demand and managed remotely from Astral’s state-of-the-art control and broadcast centre located in Montreal. The technology also allows the display of AMBER alerts or road safety advisories.

Digital technology is asignificant environmentally-friendly improvement over conventional billboard signs. Digital boards eliminate the need for ink, glue, paper and vinyl, as well as the energy and CO2 emissions that would be required to produce these materials. In addition, Astral Out-of-Home powers all of its Toronto advertising faces and transit shelters with green energy from renewable sources, including low-impact wind farms, solar energy and hydro facilities.

Astral Out-of-Home is one of Canada’s leading out-of-home advertising companies with nearly 8,000 strategically-placed advertising faces in key markets in Québec, Ontario, and British Columbia. Strongly committed to environmental protection, the company has embarked on a series of green- and-clean initiatives to reduce the impact of its products on the environment.

Astral is one of Canada’s largest media companies. It operates several media properties—pay and specialty television, radio, out-of-home advertising and digital media properties—among the most popular in the country. Astral plays a central role in community life across the country by offering diverse, rich, and vibrant programming that meets the tastes and needs of consumers and advertisers. To learn more about Astral, go to astral.com.

Astral Media inc.
1800, avenue McGill College
Bureau 2700
Montréal (Québec) H3A 3J6
Tél. 514 939-5000
Téléc. 514 939-1515
Web: www.astral.com

Media
Hugues Mousseau
Manager,
Corporate Communications
Astral Media inc.
514-939-5000
hmousseau [at] astral.com

Trade
Nathalie Doré
General Manager,
Marketing & Media Creativity
Astral Out-of-Home
514-529-3200
ndore [at] astral.com

Source: Astral Media