Digital advertising boards are to be installed in 25 bus shelters across an East Lancashire borough.

Blackburn with Darwen Council has revealed it plans to use the hi-tech displays to generate an extra £75,000 a year in revenue.

It plans to install them in 25 of the 66 bus shelters across the borough, replacing the existing paper poster adverts.

The authority is now going out the tender to find a provider for the digital boards on a 10-year-contract, which will also include servicing its existing giant advertising billboards outside Blackburn's Town Hall and and Barbara Castle Way.

A report authorising the move by Blackburn with Darwen Council leader Cllr Phil Riley says: "The council currently uses paper poster advertising throughout all 66 of its bus shelters across the borough.

"In an attempt to modernise the borough and increase revenue, the council is looking to award a concession contract for the provision of Bus Shelter Digital Advertising Services, which will require a supplier to provide, maintain and sell advertising slots on 25 digital boards across bus shelters across the borough and on the two large digital screens, in order to maximise revenue for the council.

"It is estimated this contract will bring an additional revenue of £75,000 per year to the council in addition to the existing revenue already generated by selling paper advertising slots to local companies.

"Last year, a requirement for a bus shelter advertising contract was identified to help fill some of the empty advertising space on the bus shelters and increase revenue for the council.

"Advertising slots of the two large digital screens located in the town centre and Barbara Castle Way were included within the requirement.

"An expression of interest exercise was conducted to get a better understanding of the market.

"This process saw responses from four providers: Alight Media, Clear Channel UK Ltd, Community Partners Limited, and UK Partnerships Ltd

"Meetings were held with Alight Media and UK Partnerships Ltd to discuss our requirement and the market in more detail.

"These discussions highlighted two major changes that needed to be made to our specification: digital advertising instead of paper and a 10-year contract duration instead of four or five years.

"Digital advertising is required to keep up with the rapid technology advancements in the advertising market, which has made paper advertising almost obsolete.

"A 10-year contract duration is required to ensure suppliers can make a return on their initial investment of installing the digital screens.

"The supplier will cover all installation costs.

"The process of building digital screens into the existing bus shelters may result in the bus shelters being out of action for a short period of time."