Times Square countdown to be last with Toshiba ad screen

December 30, 2017

New York- New Year's countdown at New York's Times Square on Sunday night will be the last annual extravaganza featuring Toshiba Corp.'s large sponsored outdoor screen.

In order to reduce costs after incurring massive losses in its US nuclear business, the embattled Japanese electronics and machinery maker decided in November to give up the sponsorship for the screen installed at a building overlooking Times Square in the first half of 2018.

Toshiba will also step down as a sponsor for the countdown event.

As a symbol of its overseas business expansion, Toshiba set up the screen, which is 16 meters square, at the top of the Times Square building in December 2007.

Along with its corporate logo, the screen has shown advertisements for Toshiba products as well as Japanese tourism videos.

Shown prominently in television broadcasts, the annual countdowns are said to be viewed by more than one billion people globally every year.

In recent years, an increasing number of companies have questioned the effects of outdoor advertising and shifted ad spending to the Internet.

According to informed sources, multiple Japanese companies have been approached about replacing Toshiba as ad sponsor at Times Square, but they declined the invitation, with some saying they see little prospect of achieving the benefits matching the cost. Jiji Press