PHSN-Vif do Quebec health clinic deal

September 15, 2008 by Dave Haynes

Long-time waiting room TV opertator PHSN announced a deal today to hand its Quebec portfolio over to Medik-TV, a subsidiary of Montreal-based VIF Communications.

The deal allows Vif to get moving on a health clinic program it has been looking at for the Quebec market, and gives PHSN an instant affiliate and parallel network to sell into, but relieves the Toronto-based company of the small toe-hold it had in the Quebec market directly.

Medik-TV network gets an established base of 15 high traffic medical clinics in Quebec and about 72,000 sets of eyeballs a month. Owner Ben Johnson, who already has an ad-driven ATM lobby network in Quebec, plans to at least triple the footprint over the next year.

Run by industry veteran Ed Voltan, PHSN has about 300 clinics across the country, and uses its sister company Adwurks’ software/hardware platform to move ads and content around. The Medik network will be part of a larger national play of related networks PHSN is pulling together, the notion being a large aggregate of similar networks has a better shot at ad dollars than as individual operators.