Flat screen televisions are popping up all over campus in areas such as Steely Library, Albright Health Center, Starbucks, and the food court in the University Center.

The televisions were provided by SADGE Media Group, a Cincinnati based company that works with colleges and medical schools. SADGE installs and maintains the televisions and sells the advertisements to run on the screens.

SADGE installed the televisions at NKU at no cost to the university; and in return SADGE will give NKU a monetary percentage from the advertisements that they sell, which will go directly into the marketing budget.

Advertisements such as Provident Bank, Neighborhood Watch, and The BMW Digital Film Series are running continuously on the television screens right now.

NKU will be in complete control of the advertisements that will air and will also have time to deliver their own messages. “This is a great opportunity to gain added revenue for marketing the university without any extra cost to us,” said Rick Meyers, Assistant Vice President for Marketing Communications.

Aside from gaining money the university is also gaining acknowledgment.

Because NKU is a compact campus with high traffic areas SADGE will bring many large companies such as Sara Lee Foods and Microsoft to tour the campus to see how the system works.

MGM and Universal Pictures visited NKU before Christmas to decide if they wanted to promote their movies and have since agreed to the deal.

Dan Penn, President of SADGE Media Group, is happy about the revenue sharing arrangement that his company has made with NKU.

“NKU is a beautiful campus with many different venues,” he said. “The faculty and students have been terrific and we are excited to use NKU as a showcase campus.”

Students on campus are noticing the televisions, but many of them do not know what purpose they serve.

Even though the advertisements are going to change every week or two, the advertisements that are running now are becoming repetitive for the staff who work around them.

Rita Starns, an employee in the food court, is glad when it is busy so she doesn’t have to listen to the same thing over and over.

“It will be nice when they change the ads,” she said.

Jacqueline Muzyka, a freshman and an employee in the Albright Health Center agrees.

“They need more advertisements,” she said. “They run the same advertisements over and over.”

In the food court some students think the television should be in a different location.

Senior Kenni King thinks the screen is installed the wrong place.

“You can only see it when you are in line and you may not be in line very long,” she said.

Although the television in Steely Library has not been running full time, it has some students concerned about it’s affect on their studying.

Kelly Ketteler is majoring in Elementary Education and studies in the library nearly every day.

“If it is really loud it may bother me, but if not, it should be OK,” she said.

Some students and staff have changed their mind about the televisions since they have started running.

Steve Meier, manager of the University Center, was concerned about noise from the television, but realized that it is not a problem at all.

“They look pretty nice,” he said.