The emergence of a new U.S.-based transit-advertising powerhouse is heating up competition for one of the industry’s largest contracts – the Toronto Transit Commission.

Obie Media, a Vancouver-based division of a larger U.S. firm, recently won five-year contracts in Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Cambridge, Ont. The company will be aggressively pursuing a stake in the coveted Toronto market, says Steve Grover, president of Obie Canada.

‘We’ve been in the business 40 years and our track record in transit districts is proven,’ he says. ‘When we respond to tenders, it’s from a wealth of experience, background and knowledge.’

The company is giving Canadian-based firms such as Urban Outdoor Trans Ad and Pattison Outdoor a serious run for their money.

Obie, whose publicly traded parent is based in Eugene, Ore., entered Canada through its acquisition of the Vancouver Transit contract, which it wrested from Pattison last year. The company won the contract with an aggressive bid that guaranteed the transit authority up to $37.8 million in revenue over seven years.

Pattison’s previous five-year contract reportedly guaranteed the Vancouver transit authority $13 million or 62.5% of revenues, whichever was greater.

Obie rolled into London, Ont. in January, and is now actively pursuing contracts throughout Canada, Grover says.

Obie has increased its revenues in part by aggressively selling transit advertising, not just to the traditional base of national advertisers, but to new local clients as well.

‘We are a full-service company selling national business just as much as anyone else does, but we also sell local business more aggressively, and in our opinion, better than anybody else in the transit industry,’ he says.

Since the demise of MediaCo, a Markham, Ont.-based transit company representing bus fleets throughout the 905 area code, a number of tenders have come up for bid.

Currently out for tender is the package of Oshawa, Whitby, Pickering and Ajax, as well as the cities of Guelph, Stratford, and Mississauga in Ontario. Outside of Ontario, Edmonton is expected to put out its call for tenders soon.

Competition in the outdoor advertising market has exploded since B.C. entrepreneur Jimmy Pattison sold Trans Ad to Toronto-based Urban Outdoor in the early 1990s. Since then, a number of new competitors, both domestic and foreign, have expanded their Canadian presence.

U.S.-owned Eller Media Canada has emerged as a new player in the market. TDI, a small Toronto-based operation headed by Danielle Parent, former president of the Canadian Outdoor Measurement Bureau (COMB), has also opened a Toronto office selling poster space on railway-owned property.

TDI is a subsidiary of New York-based Infinity Broadcasting Corp. that recently purchased Phoenix, Ariz.-based Outdoor Systems, the parent company of Toronto’s Mediacom.

The cutthroat competition is not just limited to Canada. Obie recently lost the contract for transit advertising in its home state of Oregon to New York-based TDI.