Digital outdoor overtakes print

Digital outdoor media has overtaken print for the first time, with the half year to June showing print, or classic, or static slipping into the minority of the outdoor spend, and down by $11.5m in revenue.

The out of home (OOH) total net media revenue for the half year to June was $447.3m, up by 5.2 per cent compared to $425.2m for the same period in 2018.

Print's share of this was 46 per cent, compared with 51 per cent for the same period last year. In cash terms the spend on print dropped by $11.5m, from $216.85m in the same period last year to $205m in the six months to June.

The latest figures from the Outdoor Media Association could signal the beginning of the end of the boom for large format print. Wide format print has been on a non-stop growth trajectory for the past two decades, and while OOH is not the whole of wide format print, it is indicative.

Other signs that wide format is getting tighter include the demise last week of Civic Media in Brisbane, formerly one of the country's biggest and most progressive wide format print businesses.

For the six months to June the biggest category of OOH roadside billboards saw a decrease in overall spend of $3.2m to $176.7m. Roadside other, which includes buses and trams, rose by $9m to $126.1m; transport including airports was up strongly by 15 per cent to $82.6m from $69.8m; and even the under pressure retail sector grew, by six per cent to $61.8m.