Cineplex Buys Onsite Media Network
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Toronto-based movie theatre operator Cineplex Entertainment, which operates the Cineplex Media advertising network, is investing in small screens with the purchase of Alberta-based Onsite Media Network for CAD 1.7 million.
In a release, Cineplex said it has the support of 67% of Onsite shareholders for the deal that is expected to close 30th April 2009.
Onsite operates 1,200 ad-supported digital screens in sports arenas and office towers in major markets across the country. Its Sports Stadium Network includes Vancouver’s GM Place, Calgary’s Pengrowth Saddledome and Edmonton’s Rexall Place, while its Office Tower Network consists of 200 screens in the public concourses and food courts of 22 Brookfield Property Management properties—including First Canadian Place and the Hudson’s Bay Centre in Toronto, and Banker’s Hall and the Royal Bank Building in Calgary – as well as in Ottawa properties. the company claims that its screens deliver 120 million impressions a year.
Cineplex Media specializes in in-theatre advertising, delivered through a combination of digital pre-show, full-motion ads, in-lobby backlits and print ads in its in-house magazine Famous.
The Onsite acquisition is Cineplex’s first purchase in the digital advertising space. However, it added digital screens in the lobby area of three new theatres opened in Ontario late last year. Cineplex currently operates 130 theatres in six provinces, and is expected to put lobby digital screens into many of these in the future.
Cineplex Media had revenues of CAD 61 million in 2008.
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