—Gatekeeper role?: Just as it’s the gatekeeper of terrestrial and Freeview signals for broadbcasters, Arqiva could set itself up as a similar facilitator for online video, joining Brightcove and all the other video platforms as a solution for online publishers, broadcasters seeking a better quality players. But this would be something of an irony: in its submission to the BBC’s proposed Canvas open IPTV standard project, concerned of its position as the main Freeview infrastructure provider, Arqiva warned against the corporation becoming a TV “gatekeeper” and deciding what products and services people could receive through their TVs.

—Expertise lacking: Online video is a crowded market and while Arqiva’s knowledge of digital broadcast signal distribution is unrivaled in the UK, does the company really have experts in online video?  A document from Arqiva (pdf) accompanying an analyst meeting in 2008 goes into great depth on the business’s complex assets—but there’s no mention of online publishing or VOD.

—DAB purchase: One thing Arqiva is buying is the remaining is the Digital 1 DAB radio complex from GCap—a move first announced in April but officially rubber-stamped today.