Sun Valley Firm Has Ticket to Ride With Bus TVs

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A Sun Valley company has started producing video programming – including news reports and trivia games – for a very specific audience: bus riders.

Tezo Systems Unlimited Inc., which developed ticketing technology for transit services, sports stadiums and performing venues, recently finalized its acquisition of Transit Television Network. Transit TV supplied advertising and programming to televisions mounted in Metro buses in Los Angeles and other cities. The network, a Florida-based subsidiary of Canadian newspaper publisher Torstar Corp., filed for bankruptcy earlier this year and shut down programming in February.

Tezo picked up Transit TV’s pieces and in September started showing its own programming on 2,100 Metro buses, producing most of its content in-house. Interns read Associated Press stories, and the programming includes trivia games that riders can play to win movie tickets by e-mailing their answers from their smart phones.

Maurice Vanegas, Tezo’s chief executive, said he wants to concentrate his Transit TV project in Los Angeles, where it reaches 1.2 million viewers daily, before considering returning to the network’s former arrangements on metro systems in Atlanta; Chicago; and Orlando, Fla.

“There’s a lot of opportunity here for us to create some great localized programming that Metro riders will want to watch, including having comedians doing stand-up bits, and cooking segments taped locally,” said Vanegas. “And we hope businesses realize the advertising potential here, too. One of our main goals is to empower local businesses to use the network to advertise because they have a captive audience.”

Meanwhile, Vanegas plans to launch a Web site by mid-December that will allow advertisers to book time in a hyperlocalized manner. Banner ads on the screens, which start at about $1.49 per 30 seconds, can then be programmed to appear on specific street locations the advertiser is targeting, thanks to Tezo’s GPS technology.

Tezo’s deal with Metro calls for a trial period that culminates at the end of the year, but Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Dave Sotero said a formal agreement could be finalized before January to keep the service in place.

Shuttling O.C.

FlyAway, a shuttle service that has been taking travelers to Los Angeles International Airport from Van Nuys, Union Station and Westwood, will start bringing fliers from the O.C.

The first Orange County FlyAway bus, operated by Coach America Los Angeles, is scheduled to hit the road Nov. 16, rolling out from Irvine Station. There will be 500 surface parking spaces at the station, where FlyAway passengers can park free for up to 30 days.

The Irvine station is the fourth site in the FlyAway network; its other locations handled more than 1.5 million travelers combined for the 12 months ending June 2009.

The choice of airports presents a dilemma for travelers. It’s usually more expensive to fly out of close-to-home airports such as Bob Hope in Burbank or John Wayne in Orange County. But those who opt for cheaper fares at LAX have to face a long drive and parking fees. The FlyAway tries to provide a happy medium. The FlyAway fare from Irvine is $25 each way, still cheaper than comparable private van service.

Cargo Fees Dumped

Starting Nov. 15, terminals operating at the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach will stop charging some cargo owners an up-front fee that generated an amount of controversy.

Cargo owners who use trucks that meet 2007 federal emissions standards will no longer have to pay the fee if they have an electronic pass.

Currently, all importers and exporters have to prepay a fee of $35 for each 20-foot cargo container that crosses the ports’ gates. Called the Clean Trucks Fee, the charge is then refunded to importers and exporters after the port verifies that the cargo was hauled by clean trucks or trains.

But importers and exporters have complained the system is pinching their cash flow and is a bureaucratic hassle, and the ports wanted to eliminate the extra step, said Geraldine Knatz, the Port of Los Angeles’ director.

As a result of the change, only cargo owners who are still using trucks that do not meet 2007 emission standards will be required to pay the fee. The money goes to help finance new lower-emission trucks as part of the Clean Truck Program, which took effect October 2008 and is designed to phase out the use of older trucks.

Port Personalities

Jeff Milanette has been named executive director of the San Pedro Bay Port Technologies Development Center, a new non-profit organization charged with attracting green businesses to the harbor. Milanette most recently was president of Innovative Partners Inc., a Westfield, N.J.-based business incubation firm. … Neil D. Morrison has been named director of engineering design for the Port of Long Beach. He was director of engineering for Stonefield Development, a developer and home builder in Trabuco Canyon.

Staff reporter Francisco Vara-Orta can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 241 or at [email protected].

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