It's official, TescoTV is struggling

After some earlier reports that Tesco TV might be having some trouble filling out its aftertising slots comes this story at The Retail Bulletin, claiming that:

“There have been delays [in Tesco TV's rollout] for several reasons,” [according to] Spencer Berwin, Group Sales Director for Tesco TV at JC Decaux. “It’s not so much that things have gone wrong as that they could have gone better. I think the content could be improved and there is also a question of whether we have the best location for the screens in-store.”

The original layout of screens ignored the kiosk and checkout areas, Berwin added. As this is the place in which customers spend the most time standing still, Berwin believes it might be a fruitful area for future screens, but until this has been thoroughly examined, there won’t be any new installations. “We have to be absolutely totally confident on the return of investment, hence the delay,” he said.

Berwin said he still believes that the general trend in retailing is towards more screens and that eventually every type of Tesco store will “probably have at least one screen.” He also added that at least two other major UK supermarkets are currently piloting TV projects. But Jenny Sacre in the Tesco press office was less optimistic.

Although she insisted that Tesco still plan to increase the number of screens eventually once they have conducted even more research into how the service could be improved, she added that the information-gathering process could take some time yet.

So there you have it, at least until the next article saying that things are moving along swimmingly, and the rest of the network is being deployed. In reality, this would be a great opportunity for two companies with a significant investment in this media to do some research as to what works, what doesn't, and release the definitive guide on the subject. That would certainly be a boon for JCDecaux, considering that they have the potential to become the dominant digital signage network provider in Europe, though I could see Tesco having some problems releasing any information that could give customers a competitive advantage.