• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, April 7, 2010

This week brought more deals in the digital out-of-home arena, with Zoom Media & Marketing announcing its acquisition of Sports Display, which operates 150 digital and thousands of static venues in 100 DMAs across North America. The plan is to convert more of these venues to digital in the near future.

As the name indicates, SDI operates wall-mounted activity and information centers in sports-related venues around the U.S. and Canada, focusing on venues with upscale clientele, including golf clubhouses and pro shops, high-end fitness and tennis clubs, and community sports arenas.

SDI also has displays in supermarkets and other retail outlets, and senior citizen and community activity centers.

All of this makes it a good fit for Zoom, whose network includes fitness centers, indoor soccer facilities and bowling alleys, as well as family entertainment centers, restaurants and nightclubs. With the SDI acquisition, Zoom now boasts a total of 25,000 digital screens and 55,000 static signage spots in 2,000 digital and 9,000 static advertising venues in 150 DMAS across the U.S. and Canada.

The addition of SDI's assets will boost its capabilities to attract local as well as national advertisers, according to president Dennis Roche. That's thanks, in large part, to SDI's local sales force -- numbering over 100, which will now be able to sell inventory on Zoom's other digital displays. The acquisition follows field tests of this arrangement in summer 2009. SDI co-founder Terry Parkin and other top management will also be joining Zoom.

Over the last several years, Zoom has pursued an aggressive strategy of acquisitions to expand is national footprint, offering advertisers greater scale and reach. In March 2008, it bought a nightlife network from Alloy Media + Marketing, covering 2,000 venues. In September 2008, it acquired ClubCom, serving fitness clubs, then expanded the ClubCom digital network through a deal with Bally.

By May 2009, it bought the Wellness Health Education Network, covering 255 fitness clubs around the U.S. That fall, Zoom announced it was expanding the ClubCom fitness network to include Sports & Health, a club operator in the Washington, D.C. metro area, and in October, struck a similar deal with Healthtrax Fitness and Wellness. Finally, by December 2009 ClubCom added health club chains Urban Active and Club One.