A new television system is to be fitted into London Taxis in an attempt to target the affluent ABC1 audience and presumably to give the passenger something other than the back of the cabbies head to stare at while on their phone.
Cabvision is designed by Peter Da Costa, an ex-cabbie, and will give the viewer a choice of five possible channels that include business, travel and a comedy channel which we hope will include the excellent taxi related Marion and Geoff.
It's broadcast on a 12.1 inch TFT screen, controlled by handsets in the arms of the main chairs, and the programs will be 5 minutes in length with ad breaks. A 30 second commercial across the proposed fleet of 1000 cabs will set you back a hefty £43,000 (actually, is that hefty? It could be very reasonable, we don't purchase a lot of advertising space).
We're sceptical, we don't get cabs often enough to be bored with sprawling out and watching London pass by at varying speeds, but it has to better than the bus TV setup with its interminable scrolling horoscopes.
Capricorn, 22 December-19 January:
Even though financial matters may be concerning you, you really should have sprung for a mini-cab because the freak getting on now is definitely going to sit next to you.
Whatever you do, and what ever he might say, don't look in his pocket.
