Some Prague city districts have received an offer from RailReklam to operate new public transport shelters instead of those owned by JCDecaux.
At the end of June, JCDecaux terminated the contract with the municipality for the operation of shelters and its billboards on public transport stops.
Under the 1994 agreement, the company operates about 900 shelters, pays the municipality a rent for this and can sell advertising in exchange. The past management of the city described the contract as unfavorable, which the company rejected.
The previous city management described the contract as unfavorable, which the company rejected. Prague authorities have therefore decided to gradually replace the billboards and shelters with their own after the end of the contract on June 30, 2021.
The districts of Prague 1, 2, 4, 8, or 11 received an offer from RailReklam. “We are waiting for the required additional information, including a response to our requests for larger shelter spaces, which would apply, for example, to the Malostranská stop,” said the spokesman of Prague 1, Petr Bidlo.
Prague 2 took a negative stance towards it, which, according to the offer, would receive half a million CZK a year for billboards on Karlovo náměstí and Bělehradska.
So far, JCDecaux has paid about 12.5 million CZK a year for all 900 billboards and other spaces in the city and was in charge of their maintenance.
According to an earlier statement by JCDecaux media representative Jiří Chvojka, there are about 200 billboards on the lands of city districts, so the town hall could receive a total of up to 20 million CZK a year if the RailReklam offer was accepted.
“The offer of competitors will probably not have much chance of success because companies would not get a building permit. The city of Prague wants to have its own transport stop shelters in the given localities and not allow any others. At the same time, due to the visual smog regulation, it does not allow the construction of new advertising spaces,” Chvojka commented.
The Technology of the Capital City of Prague has completed a tender for the acquisition of its own shelters, which will replace those owned by JCDecaux.
The first ones should appear in the streets at the end of the year, so far a prototype can be seen on Palackého náměstí.
