Four things about OUTFRONT media which Billboard Insider learned from reading OUTFRONT’s 2022 annual report and k1.

Lots of non-conforming billboards

“We estimate that approximately 75% of our billboard structures in the U.S. are “legal nonconforming” billboards, meaning they were legally constructed under laws in effect at the time they were built and remain legal to operate, but could not be constructed under current laws.”  Not surprising given OUTFRONT’s presence in large regulatory-heavy cities.  Non-conforming have risks.  If a sign comes down it can never be replaced.  And a non-conforming sign can’t be improved (read converted to digital).  On the other hand non-conforming signs are usually in areas where no new billboards are allowed so rates are high and there are barriers to entry on compeition.  Landlords also have a weaker negotiating hand because they’ll lose all their income if they get too greedy and the sign comes down.

New York, LA and big cities.

34% of OUTFRONT’s revenue comes from New York and LA.  Almost all of OUTFRONT’s revenue is from large cities.

Happy to be your sales agent.

OUTFRONT seems to be the most willing of the public out of home companies to act as a sales agent for digital signs it doesn’t own…”we entered into marketing arrangements to sell advertising on 85 third-party digital billboard displays in the U.S. in 2022 compared to 35 third party digital billboard displays in the U.S. and 4 in Canada in 2021.”

More small MTA screens coming

OUTFRONT has spent $536 million so far deploying MTA displays.  Looks like the large digital screens are mostly deployed.   MTA deployment costs will be $100 million in 2023 and $40 million in 2024, mostly for small screens.

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