Two new 42-inch plasma televisions have the potential to bring in $13,000 to $26,000 for NIU before next September. SADGE Media Group, an advertising company aimed at college students, donated the televisions to NIU last December.

According to Convocation Center Marketing Director Kevin Selover, the plasma televisions, priced at $5,000, each, are expected to generate $26,000 for NIU in revenue, a 20 percent cut of SADGE Media’s projected revenue.

-SADGE Media is responsible for the two plasma televisions located at the Holmes Student Center and at the Convocation Center. It purchased and installed the televisions, SADGE Media President Daniel Penn said.

“They pay for the TVs and for them to be installed. We get the benefit,” Selover said.

Penn said the televisions, which broadcast five minutes of paid advertising for every two minutes of NIU-sponsored advertising, supplement other popular informational mediums like The Northern Star and the Northern Television Center.

“We are solely formed to help create a new way to communicate with students and faculty by creating awareness of university services,” Penn said.

SADGE Media has contract deals with several advertisers, including MGM Studios, Miramax, Sony and Dreamworks. Next semester, branches of the United States military plan to advertise on the televisions, Penn said.

According to Penn, each 30 second advertisement clip is worth anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000 a month, depending on the available circulation and student traffic. SADGE Media has one student representative at every college, including someone who tallies the student traffic in the two locations at NIU.

“I’m not sure of the terms of the contract, but they pay for the TVs and for them to be installed,” Selover said.

The contract is non-binding. SADGE Media buys televisions for the school, and if the school becomes dissatisfied, it can discontinue the service by sending SADGE Media a 90-day termination notice.

“We do a good job, we stay on campus. We do a bad job, we get kicked off in 90 days. We pay for the pocket costs,” Penn said.

Next fall, SADGE Media plans to extend the rotation from seven to 15 minutes. Ten of those minutes will feature university programming, Penn said. The advertising will become more integrated with news and sports clips. Two-thirds of the time will feature school programming.

“We are going to be expanding it to include more fun things on there like news and extreme sports highlights,” Penn said.