ORLANDO, Fla. - Harris Corp. will be putting video screens into 6,200 7-Elevens in the United States, Florida Today reports. The company will help the convenience store chain develop a digital network that will broadcast commercials, news and weather updates to in-store customers.

7-Eleven TV is already being shown in 500 stores in big markets, including around 50 Orlando-area locations. When all 6,200 stores have the screens, the network will be the fourth largest U.S. broadcasting network. At least 200 million people will view the network monthly.

In-store networks have been labeled "digital out-of-home broadcast," a growing trend that might capture ad dollars from other news sources like the Internet, newspapers, radio and television. "If it's successful, there's no reason to believe it won't just keep on rolling," said Brian Cabeceiras, vice president of emerging businesses for Harris Broadcast Communications. "They have both the in-store advertisers and the non-store advertisers that would want to reach those 200 million viewers as well."

With 7-Eleven units selling close to 2,000 brands, advertising those products could be tailored to a particular store??s location and customer demographics. "The system is designed to handle national, local and hyper-local advertising. We could break away to regions or zones or even to an individual zip code," said Cabeceiras.

Harris will install and maintain the system in the stores with engineers controlling content from the company??s Melbourne, Fla., location. "The center of the universe for this network will be run out of Brevard County, Fla.," he said. "It??s a highly automated system and does not require a lot of human touch."

Two video screens will be mounted in each store. A computer box will manage the content via the Internet. The screens will show a news crawl, time and weather, with space for sponsors.

Walmart and other retailers, such as grocery stores, have also turned to in-store digital networks to showcase products and advertisements, as well as news and entertainment content. McDonald??s has a pilot in-store network from Harris, which the fast-food chain might expand to all of its thousands of U.S. units.

"It captures the attention of people where they are," said Timothy Coombs, University of Central Florida professor of advertising and public relations. "That??s the key when you want to get your message out."