Outdoor media giant oOh! Media achieved 10 per cent organic growth in the full year, which was boosted by the fourth quarter earnings of its Commute (Adshel) acquisition.
Organic revenue increased by $42m to $416.8m. Digital rose by a whopping 27 per cent, and now accounts for $288.1m.
The company saw strong revenue growth in Road sector of 13 per cent, and ongoing significant improvements in Fly which was up by 25 per cent and Locate up by 23 per cent from the previous year. Retail saw a three per cent downturn in Australia, although achieved double digit growth in New Zealand.
The contribution from the Commute business, which was acquired on 28 September, resulted in total revenue increasing by 27 per cent to $482.6m.
Total Underlying EBITDA increased by 25 per cent to $112.5m with organic underlying EBITDA growth (excluding Commute) increased by 5 per cent to $94.2m.
Brendon Cook, CEO, said 2018 was a transformational year, as the company continued to build a sustainable and growing Out Of Home business for the future. He said, “The acquisition of Commute brings the complementary segments of street furniture and rail to our portfolio. This ensures oOh! has the most diverse and integrated national audience delivery network in the industry, extending our audience reach to well above 90 per cent of the Australian population, and the largest coverage in New Zealand.
As Out Of Home is being transformed by technology, we continue to lead the industry in creating a new media business driven by data, content and innovation.
oOh! Is one of the country's two big outdoor media companies following the mega shake down in the sector last year that saw JC Decaux take over the APN Outdoor business. Ooh! owns award winning large format print business Cactus Imaging.
The out of home media sector is racing towards a $1bn spend, last year total revenues were up by 10.8 per cent to $927m on the year before. Digital outdoor has overtaken print as the majority of spend, but print at 47 per cent is still rising, albeit only slightly, up to $438.47m, up a smidgen from $437.75m in 2017.