Yesterday Billboard Insider quoted a public out of home company executive who said, “There are no net new billboards being built in America right now so the supply is basically fixed.  Billboard Insider noted that the number of net faces increased by 3% during 2023 after reviewing 414 US roadside out of home companies.  And 73% of Billboard Insider readers have increased their billboard displays over the past year.  Here are our poll results.

A Midwest out of home exec says the number of faces may not be growing.

Based upon my experience I would say that the CEO is probably correct. There are in fact no net new billboards in this country. A really good way to find out would be to go to state DOTs and see how many active state permits there are now vs ten years ago. This wouldn’t be a completely accurate number because there are locations that don’t require a state permit, but it would be about as accurate as it gets. Your list is helpful in determining how many locations are generally in the market, but my guess is your numbers are inflating because of better reporting from companies who know about your list and want to be on it for publicity purposes…

A Southeastern out of home exec says maybe so in cities but not in rural areas.

There are no net new billboards being built…why would someone say that?  I am certainly doing my part to prove him wrong…And what about digital conversions…That ads a lot of new inventory.  My bet is that when you are looking at big cities, there are probably more coming down than going up.  But that is not what I am seeing in my neck of the woods.

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