How pricing works

We're growing the network. Right now every booking is free and no payment is taken: advertisers are charged nothing and nothing is paid out. Every screen that joins makes the network more valuable for everyone on it, and meanwhile a screen owner can advertise their own business free on the other screens. Paid ad time opens once the network reaches 50 screens and payments are set up. What this article says about paying and getting paid describes how paid bookings work from then.

You set one number for each screen: the price of one 10-second play. Everything an advertiser pays on your screen is worked out from it.

Your price per 10-second play

• You set it when you add the screen, and you can change it any time under the screen's Settings → Price (/my-screens/:id/settings/pricing), in steps of 10¢.
• There is no separate hourly, daily or weekly rate. An advertiser picks the hours and how many plays they want, and pays for those plays.
• Under the price, Settings shows its hourly equivalent — "= $360.00 per hour of airtime" at $1.00 — which is 360 plays at your price, before surge. The screen page shows it to advertisers too. It is there to compare with; nothing is sold or charged by the hour.
• Would rather not charge? Make this screen free on the same page. Advertisers then book it at no cost, and your price is kept for when you start charging again.

How long one play is

The 10 seconds is the unit you price in, not the length of an ad.

• An image stays on screen for 20 seconds per play by default — two units, so one play costs twice your price. The advertiser can pick another length, up to your screen's Max static-image seconds (30 unless you change it).
• A GIF plays for its own animation length, like a video. A GIF uploaded before 25 September 2026 has no recorded length and counts as an image (20 seconds).
• A video plays for its own length: a 15-second video is one and a half units.

At $1.00 per 10-second play, one play of a default image costs $2.00 and one play of a 15-second video costs $1.50.

Surge hours

Surge pricing, on the same page, lets some hours cost more — or less — than your price.

• Presets: No surge (flat), Weekend peak +25% (Saturdays and Sundays) and Evenings +50% (every day, 5 pm to 11 pm).
• Advanced pricing (per-hour grid) gives every hour of the week its own multiplier, from 0.1× to 5×. At 1.5× a play in that hour costs half as much again; below 1× it costs less.
• Plays are charged at the multiplier of the hour they are booked in. A block of several hours is charged at the average of its hours.
• Off-peak discount: pick your quiet hours (and days) and a discount from 1% to 90%, and press Mark as off-peak. Those hours become cells below 1× in the grid — 20% off is 0.8× — and cost that much less. Clear off-peak hours puts them back to your price.
• RedSquare's This screen is for rent card, which plays on screens advertisers can book, states your price. When surge or an off-peak discount moves the price in any hour your screen is open, it says "From $X per 10-second play", where $X is the least one 10-second play can cost in those hours. Without them it gives your exact price, and on a free screen it says Free to advertise. The card always states the price of a single play, so a bulk discount does not change it.

Bulk discount

You can reward bigger bookings: turn on Bulk discount on the Price page and set a percentage (1% to 50%) and a number of plays (2 or more) — for example 10% off 100+ plays. When one booking adds up to at least that many plays, every play in it is that much cheaper. It comes off after surge and off-peak prices, and before the processing line. Advertisers see the offer on your screen's page and while they build a booking, with the saving itemised before they pay.

Smart pricing

Turn on Move my price with demand, weekly on the Smart pricing card and set a floor, a ceiling and a target fill (60% unless you change it) — the share of your open hours you want sold.

• Every Monday RedSquare looks at the last four weeks: how much of your screen's open hours were booked and paid for (closed days don't count, and neither do days before your TV was first online).
• More than 10 points over your target: your price goes up 10%. More than 10 points under: it goes down 10%. In between, it stays. Prices round to the nearest 10¢, a raise stops at your ceiling and a cut at your floor, and it changes at most once a week.
• Hours your screen was paused or otherwise not taking bookings don't count as unsold.
• Nothing changes on a screen that is not taking bookings, is free, or has fewer than 7 days of history in those four weeks.
• You are told every time (in the app and by email), and the Price page lists the recent changes. Bookings already made keep the price they were booked at.
• You can still type a price whenever you like — it is saved as you typed it and becomes the price the next Monday starts from.

Premium windows

An advertiser can also book a whole window on your screen, with only their ad playing. It is priced from the same number: every 10 seconds of the window costs one play, at the surge of its hours. At $1.00 per 10-second play, one hour with no surge is $360.

Who keeps what

• You keep 80% of the screen-time price. RedSquare's fee is 20%. Discounts — off-peak, bulk — come off the screen-time price first, so the 80% and the 20% are of what the advertiser actually pays for screen time.
• Card processing — or PayPal processing, when the advertiser pays with PayPal — is added at checkout as its own line and paid by the advertiser, so it does not come out of your 80%.
• A free screen takes no payment, so there is nothing to split.

Finding the right price

• The Smart pricing card on the Price page shows what active screens within about 5 miles charge per 10-second play — lowest, median and highest — once there are enough of them. Turn on Smart pricing if you would rather the price followed demand for you.
• If your hours sit empty, try a lower price, or an off-peak discount on your quiet hours.
• If they sell out, raise your price or add surge to your busiest hours.
• Change one thing at a time and give it a couple of weeks, so you can tell what worked.