Canada’s largest outdoor media supplier is expanding its presence in the west starting with the purchase of Vancouver transit shelter firm, Key One Advertising.

Mediacom controls 40% of the outdoor market in Canada, including 46% of the transit shelter business with more than 12,000 outdoor advertising faces across the country. But its presence in Western Canada is dwarfed by b.c.’s largest transit and outdoor advertising company, Seaboard, which controls the lion’s share of the b.c. market, according to Danielle Parent, vice-president and general manager of the Canadian Outdoor Measurement Bureau (comb) in Toronto.

Of the 3,700 panels audited by comb, Seaboard controls 85% and Medicom 7%, with the rest of the market divided between suppliers such as Gallop + Gallop, T-Ad and Urban Outdoor Trans Ad.

Mediacom’s acquisition of Key One Advertising brings the Mediacom tally to 206 transit shelter faces or about a 16% share of that market in the Vancouver metro area when added to its existing business in Coquitlam, b.c.

This market includes areas outside of downtown Vancouver such as Surrey, Langley and Delta.

Brian McLean, president of Mediacom, says the company is building more shelters and hopes to have a 20% share of the Vancouver transit shelter market by the end of the year.

In April, the company picked up another 656 transit shelter faces in the Toronto area when it bought Toronto-based 3M Media.