Arqiva, the UK's largest independent towers company and communications infrastructure group, announces continuing strong revenue and EBITDA growth for the nine months to 31 March 2017[1].
Revenue growth of 11% from continuing operations (excluding disposals, principally WiFi and Secure Solutions), Reported revenue growth of 8%
Revenue in Terrestrial Broadcast up 8%
Revenue in Telecoms and M2M up 11%
Satellite and Media revenues up 3%
EBITDA up 12% at £351 million
EBITDA margin improved at 50%
Operating cash flow after investing activities £326m, an increase of £155m on the prior year period
Arqiva provides the communications infrastructure used by mobile telecoms network operators, TV and radio broadcasters, and satellite TV broadcasters. Arqiva has taken a leading role in the deployment of machine-to-machine connectivity devices, such as smart meters for energy and water. It is a 5G pioneer and is operating the first European fixed wireless access (FWA) trial in London this summer in partnership with Samsung.
Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO, commenting on the results said:
Arqiva's strong financial results are driven by excellent operating performances in terrestrial broadcast, telecoms and M2M.
The visibility of revenues with a contracted order book of close to £6 billion, inflation-linked pricing, and the opportunity to increase utilisation of our infrastructure, places Arqiva in a very strong position to continue to deliver stable profitable growth. Our ongoing and significant investment in digital broadcast infrastructure; 4G, 5G, in-building solutions and small cells underlines Arqiva's commitment to ensuring that the UK truly has a vibrant and globally competitive economy.
Alongside our growth strategy, our transformation programme, FutureFit , is lowering our cost base; aligning the way we work to better reflect market developments and the needs of our customers; and strengthening our ability to deliver complex projects.
Shareholder strategic review Arqiva's shareholders are jointly undertaking a strategic review of their investment which may lead to a transaction involving their interests in Arqiva. There is no certainty that the strategic review will result in any transaction. A further announcement will be made as and when appropriate.
Arqiva reports in three divisions: Terrestrial Broadcast; Telecoms & M2M; and Satellite and Media.
Revenue in Terrestrial Broadcast up 8% The growth was driven by multiple factors: recurring revenues from new channels on the Digital terrestrial television (DTT) multiplexes; additional new video streams on our main multiplexes, radio contracts resulting from the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) rollout, the continuing clearance of the 700 MHz spectrum, and RPI linked increases on broadcast contracts.
In March 2017 Freeview announced that sales of Freeview Play TVs and set-top boxes surpassed the one million mark. This is a strong indication of the attractiveness of hybrid DTT / IP TV services in the UK where DTT is the underlying delivery mechanism that has a core free-to-air linear content base with a variety of OTT services on-top.
As at 31 March 2017 Arqiva's two main DVB-T Multiplexes had 31 videostreams, all of which are utilised. Ongoing high levels of Multiplex utilisation demonstrates the on-going attractiveness to broadcasters of the Freeview DTT platform.
The Group is delivering the DAB rollout programme for the BBC. By 31 March 2017, Arqiva had built 161 new transmitters for the BBC since rollout began to reach the targeted UK national DAB network coverage of more than 97% of the population. The final 2 sites of the 163 required to deliver the current phase of the programme are expected to be complete by June 2017.
Arqiva is progressing with the delivery of Commercial local DAB. The programme is part of an initiative to meet the local DAB coverage threshold of 90% set by the UK Government and achieved in September 2016 with the completion of 185 new sites. Arqiva is delivering new transmitters or upgrades at 221 sites and by 31 March 2017 had completed 208 sites. The final sites for this phase will be completed during summer 2017 taking local DAB coverage to over 91%.
Arqiva's DAB Multiplexes have continued to show high utilisation levels due to strong demand for radio services and radio listening in the UK.
The 700 MHz clearance programme has been a strong driver of revenue growth in the Terrestrial Broadcast business during this financial year. Arqiva is responsible for the spectrum planning, network design, programme management, infrastructure changes, service continuity, asset replacement and retuning of broadcast transmitters to enable broadcasters to move to a lower frequency.
Telecoms and M2M revenues increased by 11% Growth was driven by the Group's core telecoms towers and increased site numbers and associated activities; Installation Services activities to help MNOs in meeting coverage requirements; and the M2M business. The rise in M2M revenues resulted from recurring network availability charges on the smart energy metering contract, together with additional revenues from meter sales in relation to its smart metering contracts with Thames Water and Anglian Water.
In March 2017, the UK Government released A 5G Strategy for the UK supporting the views of the National Infrastructure Commission report. The strategy lays out the ambition and actions required to create an environment that positions the UK as a global leader in the next generation of mobile technologies and digital communications . The report states that to deliver the high speed, high capacity capabilities of 5G will likely require a significant number of small cells to be deployed.
In February 2017 Arqiva announced a partnership deal with Samsung to run the first UK 5G field trials using fixed wireless acces
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Arqiva, the UK's largest independent towers company and communications infrastructure group, announces continuing strong revenue and EBITDA growth for the nine months to 31 March 2017[1].
