Quick answer

A chain or franchise manages the Indoor TV of every location from a single account: each location has its own playlist — even in different cities, with different hours and audiences — and a central dashboard shows every screen's status in real time (how many locations are active, on, off or without internet). You can set up automatic alerts to notify the manager when a location goes down, solving the biggest pain of anyone running many screens: a TV offline with no one noticing. To start, you can test with one location (30-day free trial); for large chains and multinationals, there is an enterprise plan with an SLA and a dedicated account manager.

Same store vs different locations: what changes

"Several screens" can mean two very different things — and the same Indoor TV plan covers both, changing only the content logic.

In the first case, these are several screens inside the same store: checkout, shelf, deli scale, reception. Here it makes sense to segment the schedule by zone, and part of the content can be shared across the store's screens. We detail that scenario in the guide to Indoor TV by store zone.

In the second case — the focus of this article — these are locations in physically different places: another street, another neighborhood, another city. Here, the locations almost always need fully independent scheduling, because they have different opening hours and local audiences. The offer that makes sense at 9 a.m. in a mall unit is not the same as a street unit that opens later. That is the typical case of a chain or franchise.

Real case: a barbershop chain, one account

An example cited in this content's source episode helps make it concrete: a barbershop chain with 10 locations, in physically different places. Each location runs its own playlist — the content is tailored to that neighborhood's audience — but everything is managed from a single login. The chain's owner does not need ten accounts or ten people looking after the screens; they log in to one account and schedule each location.

The same reasoning applies to gyms in a franchise network, restaurant chains, pharmacies and any business with scattered locations. The screen keeps doing the job of communicating and selling that we cover in the guide to upselling with sales triggers — only now replicated, with central control, across every location.

Enterprise case: hundreds of locations nationwide

Scale can go well beyond ten locations. In the same episode, Galderma is cited as an example of a multinational account, served on an enterprise plan, with hundreds of Indoor TV locations across the country. (This is a case cited by JMV about one of its own customers, not a market statistic.)

At that level, the operation changes shape: it brings an annual contract, special terms, an SLA (service-level agreement) and a dedicated account manager following the chain. It is the plan built for those who need an availability guarantee and a fixed point of contact, not just self-service.

The monitoring dashboard

What holds a chain's standard is not setting up the screens — it is seeing them all at once. The central dashboard shows, in one place, how many locations are active out of the total and the individual status of each screen. An example of the kind of reading the panel delivers:

What the panel showsExample
Active locations / total90 of 100 locations active in the chain
On right now75 screens on and showing content
Off / without internet15 locations offline (location name + status)

Each row carries the location name and its state — on, off or without internet. That way the manager stops "assuming" everything is live and starts to see, location by location. Note that this availability also depends on each location's infrastructure: the network and device requirements that keep the screen from freezing are in the guide to why Indoor TV freezes or pixelates.

Offline-screen alerts

The panel solves the big-picture view; the alert solves reaction time. You can set up an automatic notice to the manager — or another responsible person — whenever a specific location goes down: turned off, went offline, lost the internet.

According to the source episode, this is one of the biggest pains of the Indoor TV market: a location that stays off, sometimes for days, with no one noticing — and the store keeps running without the communication that should be playing. In a single store the owner notices; in a chain with dozens of locations and digital signage in each, with no alert, the problem goes unnoticed. The automatic notice trades the location-by-location manual check for a response on the spot.

Plans: start with one location or scale as a chain

You do not need to be a multinational to start. The recommended path for a small or mid-size chain is to test with one location first, on the 30-day free trial, validate the operation and then scale to the other locations.

In both cases, the base is the same 100% cloud-based Indoor TV, with no extra hardware — what changes is the level of support and guarantee as the chain grows. Want to first understand how the screen generates content on its own? See the guide to Indoor TV with Artificial Intelligence.

Run a chain or franchise?

For small and mid-size chains, start by testing with one location on the 30-day free trial; for franchises and enterprise operations, talk directly with the sales team through the contact page. Prefer the full context? Watch the Café & Tech episode that inspired this guide on YouTube.

See also our Privacy Policy or learn more about the franchising model before standardizing your locations' communication.

Frequently asked questions

Can each location in my chain have a different schedule?
Yes. Each location can have its own playlist, even if the stores are in different cities, all managed from a single account. Stores in different places usually have different opening hours and local audiences — one location's schedule does not need to match another's.
What is the difference between several screens in the same store and several screens in different locations?
The same system covers both cases, but the content logic changes. Within one store, screens in different zones (checkout, shelf, deli scale) can share part of the content. Locations in different neighborhoods or cities almost always need fully independent scheduling, because of each place's hours and audience.
How do I know if a TV went down at a location I do not visit often?
The central dashboard shows each location's status in real time — how many are active out of the total, and which are on, off or without internet — and lets you set up automatic alerts. When a location goes down, the manager receives the notice without needing to visit the store to notice the screen stopped.
Is there a plan for large chains, franchises and multinationals?
Yes. Beyond the self-service plan to start with a few locations, there is an enterprise plan for chains with many locations, with an annual contract, special terms, an SLA and dedicated support through an account manager. An example cited in the source episode is Galderma, served as a multinational account with hundreds of locations across the country.
Do I need an enterprise plan to start?
No. A small or mid-size chain can test with one location first, using the 30-day free trial, and scale later. The enterprise plan makes sense when the number of locations grows and starts to require an SLA, annual-contract terms and a dedicated account manager.
Why does monitoring matter more in a chain than in a single store?
In a single store, the owner notices if the screen stops. In a chain with dozens of locations and different local teams, keeping the standard day to day is hard — a TV can stay off for hours with no one flagging it. Centralized monitoring replaces the location-by-location manual check and solves one of the market's biggest pains: a location offline with no one noticing.

Start JMV Indoor's 30-day free trial →