Arqiva is at the heart of the broadcast and utilities sectors in the UK and beyond, providing critical communications infrastructure and media services. Arqiva is the only national provider of terrestrial television and radio broadcasting and provides a machine-to-machine connectivity network for smart metering within the utilities sector.

Arqiva’s history can be traced back to 1922 when it broadcast the world’s first national radio service. In 1936 it carried the BBC’s first television broadcast. In 1978 it enabled Europe’s first satellite TV test. By the 1990s Arqiva was working with the UK’s mobile operators to bring mobile telecommunications to UK businesses and consumers. In this decade, we also launched the UK’s national DAB radio and Digital Terrestrial Television networks. Most recently, Arqiva has played a pioneering role in the roll-out of the national smart energy and water metering networks.

Arqiva was a founder member of Digital UK (DUK), Freeview, YouView and Digital Radio UK (DRUK). Freeview is the largest TV platform in the UK delivering over 100 TV and radio channels to the UK public. Arqiva owns and operates the network that delivers Freeview across the UK. We are a shareholder and operator for both commercial national DAB radio multiplexes and transmission provider for the BBC national DAB radio multiplex. Through our wholly owned subsidiaries, Now Digital Ltd and Now Digital (Southern) Ltd, and our joint ventures Now Digital (East Midlands) and South West Digital Radio, Arqiva operates 25 local DAB digital radio multiplexes. These multiplexes cover a number of regions of the UK, predominantly in the Midlands, South West and the south of England.? Our major customers within the media industry include the BBC, Bauer Media, Global Radio, Wireless, ITV, Channel 4, Five, Sky, UKTV, AMC, QVC, and Al Jazeera Networks.

Arqiva delivers smart networks for the utilities sector, enabling greater insight into network operations. Arqiva is the only large-scale provider of smart water metering infrastructure in the UK, working with some of the country’s largest water companies including Anglian Water, Thames Water and Northumbrian Water, to support the digital transformation of their networks. Through our always-on, connected smart water meters, we enable water companies to gain greater insight into leakage and water consumption, so that they can deliver better outcomes for customers and the environment. Arqiva also delivered the smart energy metering network in the North of England and Scotland for the Data Communications Company (DCC).

Arqiva is owned by a consortium of infrastructure investors and has its headquarters in Hampshire, with major UK offices in London, Buckinghamshire and Yorkshire and operational centres in the West Midlands and Scotland.