Out of home giant, APN Outdoor Group says its earnings growth for the half year has continued to soar due to a strong performance by the industry, combined with a decline in traditional media.
The company logged revenue of $150.6m up 10 per cent from last year’s $136.3m while EDITBA surged 31 per cent from $26.6m to $34.8m.
APN attributes the strong performance to the continued growth of Australia’s out of home industry, which it says is driven by a digital strategy which has grown audiences.
APN notes the Australian outdoor media market is experiencing stellar growth, and was up 18 per cent on the prior corresponding period, while traditional media has waned.
An APN spokesperson says, “Continued market strength was fuelled by further digitisation by APN and other key outdoor operators as well as declining audience in many traditional media.”
The company advises its digital rollout is on track with 16 large format digital billboards added, and is expected to reach a full year target of 20 to 25. APN says an increased digital focus has caused inventory of its static advertising campaigns to decline.
APN operates in four categories: billboards, transit, rail and airport. The airport category was the standout performer with a 38 per cent surge in revenue, growing from $14m in 2015 to $19.3m.
Rail followed with a growth of 27 per cent from $10.1m to $12.8m, then billboards with eight per cent, and transit which experienced a modest two per cent boost.
The spokesperson comments, “Overall revenue growth is being assisted by our digitisation program. Billboards and transit remain our largest revenue formats but rail and airport represent an increasing proportion of revenues, driven by asset upgrades.
“Transit revenues were up two per cent after 10 per cent growth in 2015 – the transit category currently does not include any digital revenues.”
APN recently acquired Independent Outdoor Media (iOM) in a reported $40m deal, which it expects to deliver a six to eight per cent revenue increase for the full year 2016.
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