Here are five things about OUTFRONT Media which Billboard Insider learned from reading the OUTFRONT Media 2021 10k.

Workforce growing but not back to 2019.

OUTFRONT’s workforce grew 5% in 2021 but is still 10% below precovid.

Entertainment is the belle of the ball.

Entertainment is OUTFRONT’s leading industry sector.  It accounts for 16% of revenue up from only 4% in 2020 as movie studios and broadway returned to OUTFRONT’s urban signs.

Growth spending is back

Capital expenditures and acquisitions are back to normal after being put on pause in 2020.

Legal non-conforming

75% of OUTFRONT’s billboards are legal non-conforming.  They were validly permitted but don’t conform to the current sign code.  This usually happens when a community passes a new strict sign code and grandfathers in all signs which were in effect before the code was passed.  This is good and bad for OUTFRONT.  Good because it means that 75% of OUTFRONT’s signs are in areas where it’s impossible to get new competing signs permitted.  Bad because it means that if the non-conforming billboards comes down or fall down they won’t be able to be replaced by OUTFRONT.

Still work to do…

OUTFRONT’s revenues, cashflow and cashflow margin are recovering but have yet to reach pre-pandemic levels.  A full recovery depends on the resumption of transit use in big cities.  The stock market is betting this happens in the next few quarters.  OUTFRONT’s stock is above prepandemic levels.

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