Arqiva extends wifi advertising presence

UK-based telecoms and broadcast infrastructure firm Arqiva has acquired location based media firm Selective Media, which provides targeted advertising campaigns over Arqiva’s wifi network.

Arqiva acquired a 50 per cent share in the business as part of its acquisition of Spectrum Interactive last year, but has now acquired the remaining 50 per cent.

Selective offers on-line display, pre-roll and video on demand opportunities in high footfall areas around the UK, using targeting methods based on location, age, gender, and time.

Nicolas Ott, managing director of Arqiva’s Government, Mobile and Enterprise business unit said: “The acquisition of Selective Media strengthens our media and wifi position and provides us with the leverage to become a major player in the media space along with further differentiation of our wifi offer against the competition.  Our wifi network already spans high-footfall sites including almost every UK airport and major hotel and retail chains, and this acquisition provides a fantastic opportunity for our clients and customers to connect with audiences on the move.”

Arqiva took an interest in Spectrum Interactive last year, striking a deal to enhance its indoor coverage activity by acquiring the wifi portfolio.

Ott said that the firm has been offering indoor wifi coverage on a wholesale basis to landlords and mobile operators for the past ten years, but in recent months, an increasing number of landlords and MNOs have been asking the firm to do more in terms of indoor wifi coverage, due to the fast pace of growth of mobile data usage indoors, particularly in dense urban areas.

“Landlords have been asking us to install indoor mobile coverage solutions in big business centres and we have done that, and MNOs have asked us to do it because it’s sometimes better for them to use that infrastructure for activating their own network,” he said.

“We wanted to do more, but we lacked scale do it. It was a a challenge to grow organically to be at the level we were asked to be, so that’s why the Spectrum Interactive acquisition makes a lot of sense because we’re acquiring a technology that has a significant wifi portfolio already, but also a good management team, staff and operations,” said Ott.